The most frequent advice I get on notetaking is to have a consistent color system to help when reviewing the notes. So I got different colors of post-its, highlighters and pens and decided to start doing it this week and here are my recommendations.
- donāt worry too much about buying new pens and highlighters before trying with the ones you already have
- too many colors might make your notes look cluttered. for neater notes, stick with few simple colors. start taking your notes with a neutral color like blue or black and use contrasting colors like red or light blue to make keywords pop when you read it later.
- before you start, write down the categories you want to include in your color system. some examples are important stuff, formulas, examples, definitions, things you need to research after schoolā¦ it depends a lot on the subjects youāre taking.Ā
- if you have trouble defining the categories and colors, try to associate the color coding with another note-taking method. for example, when you use the cornell method, thereās no need for a color to stand for keywords if youāre going to write themĀ down in the left column.
I came up with some category ideas for myself that can work for pre-med and 1st/2nd year med students:
Clinical correlations, examples and drug effects in red
Books/articles recommendation and things that require further research in green
Unknown terms and definitions in orange/yellow
As for keywords and important things, I prefer to underline and uppercase them
I am posting some note-taking inspiration later today. If you want to see how my color system looks like, leave a message!
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