Tips for Effective Note Taking
We all know the frantic scramble of trying to get everything the professor is saying onto our notes. Your hands are cramping, your professor’s talking too fast, the slides are too far away... note-taking can be a hassle. But it doesn’t have to be.
Check in with yourself
Before heading out to class, check in with yourself. Do you have everything you need? Have you read all the materials and finished all the assignments for today’s class?
But most importantly, how are you feeling? Are you hungry? Are you tired? Or have you had too much caffeine? Our mental wellbeing is just as important as the physical things we need for class each day. Internal distractions like hunger, sleepiness, or even jitters from too much sugar can sidetrack us from paying attention in class.
So do what you need to do before class to make sure you’re in the right head space to focus, whether that be drinking a cup of coffee if you’re tired, eating a quick snack if you haven’t had anything to eat all day, or even drinking some water so you’re not dehydrated. Sometimes, even telling yourself that you will commit to staying focused in class can do wonders.
Photo by Vadim Bozhko on Unsplash
What are you taking notes on?
With the creation of laptops, note-taking is now much easier and faster than using pen and paper.But it can provide distractions. For one, it’s much easier to browse through other sites, text with your friends, or even secretly watch a movie. In fact, a 2010 study on “Examining the Affects of Student Multitasking with Laptops during the Lecture” found that most students taking notes on their laptops are only working on class-related material 58% of the time. The other 42% is spent browsing online, working on other assignments, or playing games.
Taking notes by hand won’t expose you to these distractions. In fact, it can actually increase your focus and retention. We tend to type faster than we are able to think, which is why it’s so easy to type something word for word. But that means the information that we have just typed has not entered our brain—we haven’t had the time to process what we have just typed onto our notes. When we write by hand, we’re putting more thought onto what we’re writing down. We can better digest and comprehend the information as it comes.
Thankfully, with iPads, there is now an electronic form of taking notes by hand, which could also streamline the note-taking process for you.
Regardless, you know yourself best. And each class might even require a different note-taking method depending on the professor and material. Take your time to experiment and find out what works for you.
Get rid of distractions
When everything moved online and working from home (or in our case, going to school from home) became the norm, it can get even more difficult to set boundaries. Where and when does school begin and rest end, when you’re constantly in the same space. With Zoom classes, not only is school now on your laptop, but so are your entertainment methods, like Netflix. That’s why it’s so important to set boundaries.
Turn off your notifications during your school hours so that they won’t pop up onto your laptop screen. Only open websites you need for your class.
If you’re taking notes on your laptop,
Disable notifications on your laptop during school hours
Only have websites opened that you need for class
If you can, turn off your wifi
If you’re taking notes by hand,
Put away other devices that you don’t need for class (phone, earbuds, etc.)
Some Tips:
Repetition
You don’t have to write down everything your professor says. If they repeat a piece of information numerous times, that’s an indication that it’s important and you should write it down.
Summarize
You may be tempted to write down everything your professor says word for word, but it’s okay to summarize. What is the main point of what your professor is trying to say? Chances are, not everything they say will be on the final exam anyway.
Be creative
Make use of colored pens and highlights if you’re writing notes by hand, and the bold, italicize, and underline features on your laptop.
Make note taking fun. It’s a great way to make reviewing your notes less of a chore, and it’s good practice to set apart important information from your other notes.
Shorthand
There are many different kinds of shorthand that you can learn. Like this one below:
Photo by Arthaey Angosii (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
But traditional shorthand is complicated and difficult to learn. That’s time that students don’t have on their hands. So why not make your own? Your notes are, in fact, your notes. You’re most likely the only one who will see them and use them to review, so make up your own system.
You can...
Abbreviate long words (ex: attention ⭢ attn.)
Shorten words (ex: with ⭢ w/ ; without ⭢ w/out)
Replace articles (a, an, the) with symbols , or completely disregard them because they don’t add much information on their own
Whatever works for you!
Use voice to text
If note taking really is not your thing, maybe you can try the voice to text software available on most note-taking devices (like Google Docs). It’s not the most practical, but it may work for you.
Take advantage of lecture resources
If your professor has given you their slides (whether on paper, or electronically), make use of them and take notes on them! That way the information from your professor is on the same page as your own notes and any additional remarks they made in their class lecture.
Note Taking Methods:
1. The Outline
This is the most basic note-taking methods you can use. Start by writing headers for each topic your professor covers, and write down any necessary sub-headers underneath. Then, you can bullet list any important information underneath corresponding headers.
It’s best to limit each header with only a few points so you’re not writing down everything that’s being mentioned.
2. The Cornell Method
Separate your paper into three parts:
Note-taking area
Write down any information that your professor says or writes down on the board (includes verbal examples, comments, diagrams, etc.)
Review/ self-test
Write down any key words or phrases that summarizes main points. You can also write down any vocabulary and definitions, as well as potential test questions.
Summary
Summarize the lecture in your own words. By doing this, you can also find out which areas of information you may need clarification and further review.
The Mind Map
This method may be best for topics and subjects that are more complex, with information that are intertwined with each other, like history. It allows you to see the overall structure of a subject, as well as how it connects to smaller ideas within the subject. It can help you see the relative importance between big-picture ideas and small details.
Miro is a great online software that can help you do this electronically if you don’t want to draw it by hand. It’s also a great platform to collaborate online with a group of people.
Photo by Raul Pacheco-Vega (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
