1. take notes every time youâre in lecture, and on applicable readings. so many people say that theyâre bad at taking notesâŚwhen they NEVER take notes. taking notes is like any skill; the only way you get better is with time and practice. once you take notes consistently, you will develop a style of notetaking that works for you.Â
2. rewriting your notes is valid. i see a lot of studyblrs and studygrams talk about how they never rewrite notes and that rewritten notes are a waste of time. i donât agree. i think rewriting your notes can be an effective study method, provided you do it as soon as possible after the material is covered in class. not only does rewriting your notes make them neater, which can be nice if you have hard to read handwriting, but rewriting your notes lets you actively review material to solidify gaps in your understanding, rather than passively reading over the notes. of course, donât do it just for the aesthetic, but i rewrite most of my notes and iâm okay with it.
3. handwriting your notes > typing your notes, in most cases. some people genuinely need to type notes and that is okay too. but most studies show that typing notes in lecture means theyâre less effective at helping you remember the information covered. this is because when you type your notes, youâre more likely to copy down the information verbatim because most people type faster than they can write. when you handwrite your notes, you have to pick and choose what to write down because you canât go quite as fast, and you are more likely to convey the information in your own words. if you like the convenience of digital notes but want to handwrite for better retention, consider taking your notes on a tablet with a program like goodnotes, which lets you handwrite with a stylus. but good old fashioned pen and paper works just as well if not better! iâm a pen and paper stan myself.Â
4. functionality is more important than aesthetic. you donât need to own any specific type of stationery to take good notes. maybe you donât live near a muji store, maybe you like ballpoint pens better than gel pens, or maybe you just canât be bothered to buy âaestheticâ stationery when what you can find at dollar tree works fine. thatâs okay! purchasing specific stationery items wonât necessarily get you better grades. itâs really all about how youâre taking the notes. similarly, you really shouldnât feel the need to worry about drawing elaborate diagrams, putting calligraphy titles on every lecture, or having the best handwriting when you take your notes. if these things help you learn or motivate you to study, thatâs great, but you shouldnât feel pressured to have âfancyâ notes if it doesnât suit your learning style.
5. for humanities classes, focus on concepts. for stem classes focus on examples. you kind of have to shift gears when youâre taking notes for different types of classes. in stem classes, understanding how to apply the concept is paradoxically much more important than having a super great understanding of the definition of the concept. so if your lecturer is working through a really long example, thatâs not an excuse to zone out because youâve already written down what the definition of the concept is. memorizing the pythagorean theorem is useless if you have no idea how to apply it. for your humanities classes, define as many key terms in your notes as you can if you donât know what to take notes on. iâm grossly oversimplifying here, but you can kind of think of these classes as vocabulary courses where youâre looking to really understand what the words mean. you can later go back in and add examples.Â
6. for faster notetaking, use a highlighter, a quick drying pen, and correction tape. fancy gel pens might feel nice, but when you are taking notes in a fast paced lecture, waiting for them to dry so your notes donât smudge can be a real hassle. i would honestly recommend using a ballpoint, felt tip pen, or quick-drying gel pen as an alternative, even though these maybe arenât as âaesthetic.â if you make a mistake, go for correction tape over correction fluid, because you donât have to wait for it to dry and you can write immediately on top of it. if you like to add color to titles or key words, use a highlighter instead of a colored pen, as this is a lot faster than switching between pens.
7. donât make your color-coding too complicated. i donât use a strict color code for my notes because itâs not really practical for me, but i do like to add color to their notes, especially when it comes to memorizing specific types of information. if this is a tactic youâre considering trying out, i would recommend that you keep it very simple. try to limit it to three colors max. too much more than that and youâre liable to mess it up and get confused. you want the colors in your notes to simplify them, not make the information more difficult to digest.
8. focus on what the lecturer is saying, not whatâs written on the slides or handouts. youâre not going to lecture to read powerpoint slides; youâre going to learn what the lecturer has to say, so if the lecture is going really fast, focus on the things that theyâre saying rather than the presentation. this may feel counterintuitive, but most lecturers provide slides/other supplementary materials prior to lecture or after the lecture, and if they donât, you can always send an email and ask. if you find yourself mindlessly writing down the info from the presentation or handouts and then zoning out, consider printing out the slides prior to class and annotating them with the lecturerâs comments. if theyâre good at lecturing, most of the information probably wonât be on the slides anyway. remember, a lecture is a one time thing. you can always get the slides later obviously, this has changed a little in the time of rona because a lot of lectures are recorded for you to watch later, but i still think this is relevant because i donât think anyone wants to go back and rewatch a zoom lecture because they werenât paying attention!
9. organize your notes in a way that makes sense to you. you want your notes in a central location when it comes time for that final! maybe you want to have separate notebooks for every class, or maybe one binder or notebook with multiple sections. maybe you want to date your notes or title them so you can remember specifically at a glance what is covered in each section. maybe you want to mark up your notes with page flags so you can easily flip to the most important sections. how you organize your notes is up to you, but itâs important to have some kind of system so you can study them with ease.Â
10. for notes on readings, summarize, summarize, summarize! if you have readings you want to take notes on, itâs not necessary that you copy down every single fact or key term. this will take forever, and more often than not, you will burn yourself out. instead, try to summarize what youâre reading in your head. try to write every paragraph as one or two sentences. this will force you to put the reading into your own words-active learning again-rather than painstakingly writing down extraneous information.Â
