Review your notes as soon as possible after class. Meeting with a few classmates after class to review what you have just learned is a very effective way to clarify and organize the material just covered in class. Your note taking speed and comprehension of the material may increase if you read the textbook before the lecture. Notes in a math class might not be the same as notes in a Sociology class.ĭon’t give up. If the instructor is going too fast for you to keep up, get as much down in your notes as possible. Leave empty spaces for the material you don’t get, and fill in the blanks after class. Write down relationships between ideas (the why and how), as well as all the facts, terms and definitions. On college exams, instructors will frequently test you on how the terms relate to one another, how two ideas are the same or different, how one event led to another or how a concept applies to the real world. Although professors often do not write these connecting ideas on the board, or write them out on their PowerPoint slides, we often mention them in class, and you should be writing them in your notes.ĭevelop your own style of note taking. Whether you outline, use the Cornell method, map your notes or use a combination of styles, find a consistent method that works for you. Your note taking style may vary, depending on the course content. An exception to this rule: You do need to learn new terminology of the course, so make those new terms and key phrases the instructor uses part of your own vocabulary. Your notes need to be in your own words. If you simply write down and study the instructor’s ideas verbatim, you are memorizing the words without understanding the concepts. If you cannot write notes in your own words during class, recopy your notes later and convert them into your own words. Write on only one side of the page - leave the back of the page blank to write additional comments or clarification later when you review your notes or meet with the tutor, professor or study group. The more spread out your notes are on the page, the easier they are to understand when you review them later. Skip lines and leave lots of space between ideas. On the other hand, note taking is not dictation - do not try to write down every word the instructor says. Write in short, telegraphic phrases, using a consistent system of abbreviations and symbols to help speed up your writing. Most instructors write only an outline of the important points on the board or on our PowerPoint slides, so your notes should be more detailed than that. If your professor gives you a handout that is discussed in class, take notes on that handout and add it to the binder with the rest of the notes from that lecture. Do not keep handouts in a separate folder or in a pocket in some other section of your notebook.ĭo not just copy what is on the screen or on the board. Take notes on loose-leaf paper and keep them in a 3-ring binder instead of a spiral notebook. Binders allow you to organize and arrange notes in a logical manner. Sit near the front of the class where you can see and hear better. It is easier to stay focused on the instructor when you are not so far away, and it is (nearly) impossible to fall asleep sitting in the front row. Even if you don’t understand the textbook material completely, at least most of the terminology and ideas will sound familiar to you in lecture and will, therefore, be easier to organize into notes. You will find it much easier to take effective notes if you arrive in class with some understanding of what the instructor will be covering. Read the textbook chapter before the lecture. Reading someone else's notes of what they think the professor said in class is not the same thing as being there. When you are absent from class, you can get notes from another student, or sometimes the professor will give you their PowerPoint files, but these do not actually reproduce what you missed. To help with this, I have written up a set of guidelines for my students on the basics of note taking.Īttend all lectures. Therefore, many students are a bit overwhelmed when professors require them to write notes during class lectures and discussions. Note taking is rarely required in high school, and if students are required to have notes from a lecture, they often rely on the teacher giving them copies of PowerPoint slides or the teacher's lecture notes. One issue that I often encounter with my students is that many graduated from high school with little skill or experience in taking notes. Many new college students are surprised to find the expectations of their college professors are not the same as their high school teachers.
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