Notes: The what’s, when’s and how’s!
Notes are a basic requirement if you’re looking to forge good grades during the school year, but sitting, hunched over your papers for hours on end never seems to be worth it in the end. Most people feel like their notes do little or nothing to help their overall grades so, I’m here to fix that! Here are some types and tricks that I, and other people I know, use to make our notes worth the time and effort!
1. Color coordinate! If your mind is the type that associates color with information, it might be a good idea to try writing down notes in different colors! For example, for vocabulary, write it in blue and for dates, write them in green! Your brain will start associating those colors with the information written and help you remember it better! And plus, it will look super pretty!
2. Don’t rush your notes. Neat handwriting will save your time and energy when you’re trying to study because it will prevent you from wasting time trying to figure out what the heck you even have written down.
3. Color coordinate pages. Buy small post-it notes or something of the same idea and stick one of, say, pink, to the page of notes you wrote and another one of the same color to the page in your textbook that it corresponds with! That way, if you get lost reading over your notes, you can easy find where the notes were taken from and read into them more!
4. Do not write everything down. Seriously, don’t. It’s no use to you if you have the entire textbook re-copied into your notebook. Write down key names, events and definitions, as well as anything else you think may be on a test, and leave the rest! You don’t want to be writing your notes all day and you certainly don’t want to waste the time re-copying a chapter you already read.
5. Read the chapter first. Read the chapter(s) you were assigned once over without stopping to make sure you stay concentrated on it. Taking notes while reading disconnects you from the material and makes it more difficult to retain the information. So, read over the chapter once and then go back and read it again, this time taking notes while you do so. It may take a little extra time but it’s worth it when you realize you actually understand and learned something about the material you just read.
6. Abbreviate, abbreviate, abbreviate! Figure out which words you can shorten (such as because to bc and, for example, things like Bank of the United States can be shortened to BUS) and use symbols (such as arrows, equal signs, the & symbol instead of the word) to maximize the speed at which you write (if you’re taking the notes during a lecture this is a super helpful thing to do!).
7. Keep the highlighting to a minimum. It’s not hard to fall into the habit of highlighting everything on the page while reading. We’ve all been there, but the most important thing to remember is that while everything might seem important, highlighting should be reserved for the really important stuff, not just the kind of important stuff. Overdoing it with the highlighting just makes the things your reading even harder to take notes on, harder on the eyes and just down right a bit more confusing than it should be.
8. Pick your writing instrument wisely. If you find that your handwriting tends to be messier when you write in pen, write your notes in pencil, and vise versa! Also, if you’re prone to making mistakes while writing, make sure you use a writing utensil that’s erasable (erasable pens are a life saver if you prefer pen but make a lot of mistakes)!
9. Start on a new page. Start each class, lecture or topic on a new page! It will prevent your notes from blending into one another and it will make it easier for you to find the notes you’re looking for on future occasions.
10. Make a Table of Contents! This definitely doesn’t work for everyone (I’ll admit, it worked for me on rare occasions) but it’s definitely helpful! Write a number on the bottom of each note page and write it next to the notes title, topic, etc. in your table of contents! It makes it a lot easier to find the notes you want, go back and add things, etc!
11. Make note of repeated information. If your teacher, professor, or textbook, even, repeats a date, event, topic, etc., there’s a reason for it! It’s either going to be on a test, or it’s something you’re going to want to remember when exams roll around! So figure out a method that works for you for marking this information for the future (like drawing a box around it or a star next to it)!
12. Leave space. If you miss something during a lecture, powerpoint, etc., leave a space in your notes where that information would have gone and ask someone what you missed at a later time! Don’t interrupt people trying to ask them what it was, just remember that you need to find out and ask later on.
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