How to Take Notes for Uni
If you’re off to university in the fall, one of the biggest learning curves is taking notes for your classes! Here are some tips for useful and organized note taking.
Knowing what information to put in your notes when a professor is lecturing is difficult at first, especially if it’s at 8 in the morning, and the only thing on your mind is breakfast. You don’t need to write down every anecdote your prof tells the class, but you should take note of key concepts, theorists/names of people they frequently mention, and explanations of major events. If they share their power point with you, take a look at the slides after the class, and just takes notes on what the prof says. You can compare what you wrote to the power point and see if you were on the right track with picking out the important information. If the professor only shows the power point in class, make brief point form notes of the slides so you don’t feel rushed to keep up with the presentation and what they’re saying.
How you organize your information is also significant to creating useful notes, especially when it comes time to studying! I’ve said this in a few other articles: design your notes like study notes. This saves a lot of time for preparing for exams. It’s also good if you can create categories for your notes in a class, you can do this digitally or with handwritten notes! If you’re actually writing down your notes, leave space for each topic, so you can add information when a topic gets brought up again. This way, you’ll have similar concepts grouped together and you’ll be more organized for assignments and tests.
Creating shorthand for yourself and terms specific to the class is also helpful for writing notes faster! You can make a legend for what your abbreviations stand for. Also keep your shorthand simple enough that when you’re reviewing your notes it’s obvious what you were trying to say. Creating abbreviations for repeated terms and phrases can help reduce anxiety about keeping up with the pace of the class!
It’s a good learning habit to ask questions in class when you’re confused! You should also write down your questions when you don’t have a chance to ask them in the moment! If by the end of the class any of those questions are still unanswered for you, you can ask the professor to clarify any information/concepts you’re unsure of.
One final good note taking habit is to leave space for textbook notes. Often, the information in your textbook will overlap with your professor’s lectures, so you don’t want to waste time writing two sets of notes that are basically the same. You only need information from the textbook that your prof didn’t cover. This also works the opposite way when you have to do a reading before a class. Take down the key points from a textbook reading, and then add in new or extended information your prof gives during the lecture.
Hope this helps with your college studies! Please check out the blogs I used gifs from! :)
