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Note Taking

Note Taking Tips

The key to taking notes, as to all other study skills, is organization. Well organized notes are effective notes. Here is where large numbers of people make a critical mistake in college. They assume that note taking skills used in high school will be effective in college as well. Often, they are wrong. The next sections will look at a very effective format for taking notes, the selection of important material for inclusion in notes, and the use of other note taking aids.

  1. Use large sheets of paper, 8-1/2 x 11 minimum, narrow-ruled if possible. The bigger the paper, the fewer pages of notes you will need to take. The fewer the pages of notes, the easier it is to study them. Also, fewer pages make it easier to see how one thing relates to another. In other words, large paper aids organization.

  2. Write the date in the upper right corner of the paper as you start each class. Notes can sometimes get torn out of notebooks and misplaced. Sometimes you may need to turn in your notes to the instructor or loan them to another student. By dating notes, you can put them back in order. This is especially important in courses where material learned one day is needed in order to understand what happens in the next lecture. Putting dates on your papers keeps everything in order for effective study.

  3. Put a title on your notes. Your instructor will usually tell you in the first few minutes of a lecture what it is all about. Frequently, she will even say something like, “Today I’m going to talk about...,” and then list what the lecture topic will be. But even if she doesn’t do this in so many words, it is up to you to begin your note taking by forming the question, “What is this lecture going to be about?” Listen for the answer to this question. When you hear it--and you will hear it--write it down at the top center of your paper. The title helps to keep notes organized. Everything of importance in the lecture will need to be about that topic. If you want to see whether something belongs in your notes, ask yourself whether it relates to the title. If so, write it down. If not, don’t put it in your notes.

  4. Draw a line from top to bottom of your page about one-fourth of the way from the left edge. Then, very simply, put all important topics to the left of that line. All supporting details about a particular topic go to the right of the line. These supporting details include things like definitions, causes, steps in a process, important researchers, and diagrams as well as any other material you consider important.

  5. Leave space between items. There are several reasons for this. Normally, an instructor will only be able to cover three or four main topics in the fifty-minute class time. Sometimes the entire class period may focus on only one main topic. Too much material written on the left side of your page detracts from recognizing easily the main points covered.

    Many lectures seem to be unorganized because the instructor goes from the first point, to a second, or even a third or fourth one before coming back and filling in material on an earlier point. If you write on every line and if an instructor goes back, you have no place to put this extra material when it is given.

    Another reason for leaving lots of empty lines (white space) is that it helps the brain to visualize the individual topics and the supporting information. With the left and right margins as well as white space above and below each main idea, the entire chunk of information is framed by white.

  6. Indent to show levels of organization with less important material indented even further to show that it is related to what is on the line above it. If a person does not indent, there will be times when, in studying notes, she won’t know whether material on the second and third lines is part of the material begun on line 1--or something different and not related to what’s on the line before. Indenting tells how one line relates to another at a glance.

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Recognizing Important Material

How does a person know which material from a lecture is important? How does a person know what belongs on the left side of the line? On the right side? Here are some of the ways to find significant material:

  • Read the textbook and recommended or required reading materials first. The first suggestion for recognizing important material for notes is to use your textbook as an aid. Read text assignments before coming to class. One reason people have trouble locating important points and terms in lectures is a lack of familiarity with the material. While competent lecturers do not just repeat material from the text, they will usually use terms mentioned in the text and will present ideas and explanations related to what appears in the text. You lose a valuable aid by not reading the text first.

  • Listen for repetition. If your instructor repeats something using the same or different words, trust that it is important and put it in your notes.

  • Listen for examples. If the instructor gives examples to illustrate something, the principle being illustrated is important. Examples are only important by themselves if they are research examples or ones that make something strikingly clear. In research examples, only the barest details are important. Usually, you will need to remember only:

    1. The researcher’s last name,
    2. The basic facts of the research, and
    3. What the research proved (the who, what, and what significance questions mentioned in the supporting details chapter)

  • Pay attention to the instructor’s mannerisms. Verbal clues and personal mannerisms are guides to important material. Instructors do say things like “It is important to remember....” They give you clues through numbers: “Here are the five steps in the process,” “There are two kinds of family,” or “These are the three basic causes of the revolution.”

    They give you "summing-up" clues such as "in conclusion," "therefore," and "finally" to alert you to important material. Listen for these verbal clues.

    Some lecturers have favorite gestures, hand movements, and facial expressions that they use in certain situations. Study your lecturer. You can soon find out how this person delivers important material.

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Other Aids to Note Taking

Additional things can be done beyond listening for clues and using an efficient format. Choose your seat carefully. Sit close to the front. Research shows a clear relation between where students sit in class and grades. This association is not magic; there are several reasons for it. Acoustics are not always good. You may not hear important material if you sit in the back. If you don’t hear it, it can’t go in your notes. People toward the front have fewer distractions: fewer people moving, talking, doing other work, or even sleeping around them.

Use Your Test

Another important clue for note taking is your first test. When the test is returned, ask where the questions came from. If items came from classroom notes, did you have the necessary information? Was the material you took down in class adequate for passing the test? What kind of material was emphasized on the test (researchers, theories, straight facts, etc.). The kind of material emphasized on the first test will be emphasized on future tests. This is the kind of material that belongs in your notebook.

Ask Questions

If you don’t understand something, ask a question. There are no foolish questions. It is the instructor’s job to be sure you understand, but if you don’t ask questions, the instructor will not know whether you understand or not. If you don’t understand, you may lose out on material that is needed for future classes or for tests.

Review

Review your notes as soon as possible after a lecture. Studies show that most lecture material is forgotten within the first 24 hours after a lecture. If you want to remember your material, go over it as soon as possible after the lecture. This may take 5 minutes, but in aiding recall and cutting into the amount of forgetting, it will be a worthwhile investment in your classroom success. It tells you what you know from a lecture and what you don’t know. It helps set the stage for the next day’s lecture and can make this new material easier to learn.

Make Friends

Finally, make a friend in each course you take. You can compare notes with this friend early in the semester. If you are both getting the same material, then you can be fairly confident that you are getting what is important. If there are major differences between your notes, there is cause for concern because one of you is probably not getting the correct material. Then it is time to check with your instructor to see if you are on track with your notes.

A friend can also help by providing notes if you miss a class. Getting notes from another person is not as good as being there, but it does prevent you from totally missing important material. Another technique for using your friend when you have missed a class is to ask that person to read notes to you.

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Study Skills