TAKING NOTES FOR YOURSELF

Learning to make notes effectively will help you to improve your study and work habits and to remember important information.   Often, students are deceived into thinking that because they understand everything that is said in class they will therefore remember it.   This is dead wrong!   Write it down.

As you make notes, you will develop skill in selecting important material and in discarding unimportant material.   The secret to developing this skill is practice.   Check your results constantly.   Strive to improve.   Notes enable you to retain important facts and data and to develop an accurate means of arranging necessary information.

I. There  are many reasons for taking lecture notes.

  • Making yourself take notes forces you to listen carefully and test your understanding of the material.
  • When you are reviewing, notes provide a gauge to what is important in the text.
  • Personal notes are usually easier to remember than the text.
  • The writing down of important points helps you to remember them even before you have studied the material formally.
II. Instructors usually give clues to what is important to take down.   Some of the more common clues are:

  • Material written on the blackboard or overhead.
  • Repetition
  • Emphasis
    • Emphasis can be judged by tone of voice and gesture.
    • Emphasis can be judged by the amount of time the teacher spends on points and the number of examples used.
  • Word signals (e.g. "There are two points of view on . . . " "The third reason is . . . " " In conclusion . . .")
  • Summaries given at the end of class.
  • Reviews given at the beginning of class.
  • Include comments the class makes that the teacher agrees with.
III. Each student should develop his or her own method of taking notes, but most students find the following suggestions helpful:

  • Set a mental context for your note-taking.   Think a minute about your material before you start writing. 
  • Make your notes brief.
    • Don't write down everything that you read or hear.   Be alert and attentive to the main points.   Concentrate on the "meat" of the subject and forget the trimmings.
    • Never use a sentence where you can use a phrase.   Never use a phrase where you can use a word.
    • Have a uniform system of punctuation and abbreviation that will make sense to you.   Use a skeleton outline and show importance by indenting.   Leave lots of white  space for later additions.
  • Put most notes in your own words.   However, the following should be noted exactly:
    • Formulas
    • Definitions
    • Specific facts
  • Use outline form and/or a numbering system.   Indention helps you distinguish major from minor points.
  • Use a double entry note-taking system (see "Cornell Notetaking System" handout)
  • If you miss a statement, write key words, skip a few spaces, and get the information later.
  • Don't try to use every space on the page.   Leave room for coordinating your notes with the text after the lecture.   (You may want to list key terms in the margin or make a summary of the contents of the page.)
  • Date your notes.   Perhaps number the pages.
  • Write neatly. Make notes complete and clear enough to understand when you come back to them.
  • Leave plenty of white space for later additions. Skip lines. Leave space between main ideas.    This is where you can add explanations to examples.
  • Don't keep notes on oddly shaped pieces of paper.   Keep notes in order and in one place.
IV.   Make reflection part of your routine.

  • Shortly after making your notes, go back and rework (not redo) your notes by adding extra points and spelling out unclear items. Remember, we forget rapidly.   Budget time for this vital step just as you do for the class itself.
  • Review your notes regularly.   This is the best way to achieve lasting memory.