#notetaking tips

Note-taking is something that I find is essential for really acing that final exam. It may not be the most effective for everyone when it comes to studying, but several studies have shown that writing is more effective for remembering something as compared to the classical reading. Here, I will be talking about some tips and tricks that I have picked up in my experience of note-taking, which is sadly limited to only textbook-based notes, as I don’t see the need to make lecture notes just as yet. On a final note (ha, note, get it), these are things that have worked for me, and may not work for everyone.

1. Have a note-taking code. What I mean by this is that you need to have a certain method of note-taking. You will discover what works best for you as you make more notes. For example, I use two colour pens for making boxes around important things: blue (what I write my notes with) for not-so-important things which are only summarised in the form of, say, a table, and purple (for highlighting) to mark out the extremely important things for last-minute revision, like definitions.

2. Your notes should be legible. There’s no point in making notes if you won’t understand what you’ve written when you actually get around to studying them. Although, you have no obligation to make your notes comprehensible to anyone else. Remember, these are your notes.

3. Make yourself look forward to it. Buy pretty notebooks, amazing pens, make your notes aesthetically pleasing, do what you can to make yourself look forward to note-taking. I personally enjoy note-taking as compared to reading as it keeps my brain active because I have to focus on what I need to take down and how.

4. Don’t waste too much time on making your notes look ‘pretty’. Now, I know how tempting it is to achieve the look of those pictures of notes on Pinterest, but note-taking should revolve around functionality and usefulness, not aesthetics. I know this somewhat contradicts my previous point but if you’re taking more time to decorate your notebook than taking actual notes, there’s going to be a problem.

5. Draw those diagrams. Since you’re going to be making notes only once (hopefully), drawing the diagrams in your textbook will help you visualise it during the exam. Draw a fair diagram once in your notebook, annotate it instead of just labelling (this means writing down one line about each labelled part), and try doing this without looking at the textbook. This works especially well for visual learners, even though this mainly applies to more scientific subjects such as biology and chemistry.

6. Don’t go overboard with highlighting. Notes are supposed to be a summary of the most important parts of the topic. Highlighting notes does help in last-minute studying, but highlighting everything simply defeats the purpose of notes. I personally don’t use highlighters, but instead I underline or draw a box with a mildly coloured (contrasting) pen so that I don’t end up staring at a page of neon green.

7. Compile notes from different sources. When you have everything relating to a single topic at one place, studying becomes several times more convenient. Notes allow you to do just that. You can summarise out annotations in your textbook, extra information provided by your teacher, and even information from online videos and articles. That way, you have everything in one place and don’t have to go looking for other books and references.

8. Know that this is mostly for last-minute studying. Notes are helpful if you need to quickly revise a concept some time before the exam. This does not mean that you will not read the textbook. Unless you’ve copied down the whole text, reading the text refreshes concepts you didn’t even know you’d forgotten. Don’t rely on notes for complete exam studying.

I hope this helped! It's an older post, one which I made over a year ago (almost two years ago, actually), but I still stand by all these tips, so they have clearly worked for me!

How to take notes in a lecture?

There are several efficient ways of note taking - Outline, boxing, Cornell, mapping etc. I’ve tried quite a few myself and incorporated a few features which I personally liked. So here what I do

1️⃣ Since I take all my class notes in the same notebook, I write down the topic, Class/subject code, date and professor’s name on the top.This makes it very easy to categorise and retrieve information whenever needed

2️⃣ Take notes in POINTS. Don’t waste time writing down long sentences. Keep it CLEAR, PRECISE and QUICK TO SCAN

3️⃣ Make a note of EXAMPLES, EXCEPTIONS, STATEMENTS, QUOTES etc. Write down the quotes and statements exactly as they are

4️⃣ Use ABBREVIATIONS, SYMBOLS, MIND MAPS, CONNECTIONS, SCHEMATICS and DIAGRAMS whenever necessary. This will make your understanding of the topic much better. Plus, chances are that you’ll remember these things during your test

5️⃣ Put down IMPORTANT THINGS like FORMULAE, VALUES, KEY WORDS etc in a box. Our eyes will definitely look over it and register the info much faster

6️⃣ Write down REFERENCES, ASSIGNMENTS, THINGS TO REVISE for the class, DOUBTS or QUESTIONS that may arise during or after class, THINGS TO SEARCH etc. in the margins or corners. I use symbols like R,❓,🔎,❗️etc. to denote them. They always help me remember what to finish, ask doubts I had etc

7️⃣ (Mostly) Use a single coloured pen. When in class, My main goal is to absorb as much information as possible and I don’t like to waste time in colour coding. I mostly use a blue or black pen to jot down notes. I draw rough diagrams with a pencil or pen depending upon the time I have

If you are digitising your notes, use a BLACK PEN because it shows up better against the contrast. But,if not then it’s better to use a BLUE PEN because it helps you remember better( Research shows that colours help us retain information much faster)

(or more specifically, how I use and make Word Templates to streamline my note-taking process)

What is a template?

- A template is a pre-formatted document that you can modify and save for yourself. Microsoft Word comes with a number of general templates (like "newsletter" or "resume"), but let's look into how to make one that caters to your needs perfectly.

- It is a special file type called a .dotx (as opposed to a Word doc, which is a .doc or .docx) and it can be reused as many times as you want.

Why bother with templates?

- For me, templates are useful because they save time. I don't want to constantly reformat a document (to make it the font size, type and style) that I want, and when I'm working on something that's a long-term project, like compiling notes for an exam based on a topic list, it's nice to not have to reformat it constantly.

- It makes my notes more organized and cohesive, and the uniformity helps me when I'm reviewing the notes later.

How to get started:

- figure out what you need. Mine, as you can see below, is quite simple. It has the topic #, topic title, space left for adding in an outline when I've made the notes, and desired font size/style, etc.

This is the template I made for myself:

And here's what it looks like in action.

How to MAKE your template:

For yourself, I recommend starting with an idea of what you want. For sake of ease, I added all these items into text-boxes that I could drag around and reposition.

So: do you want page numbers? Add a footer. Do you want your name and subject in the upper right hand corner? Add a text-box in!

1. Add all the items you want on your template into text boxes and reposition them as desired.

2. Adjust the size, font, style.

3. Group the items together. To do this, press and hold "ctrl" and left-click on each item/textbox. Then, let go of the "ctrl "key and right click over one of the text-boxes, and select "Group." Now you'll notice that you can move all the text-boxes and shapes as one large, combined item.

4. If you're all done, then click on "File --> Save As" and from the drop down menu, select ".dotx" as your extension (this part is the key to making templates!).

How to USE your template:

Now, how do you actually use your template?

Go to Word, select "File --> Open from Template" and find your template.

[Alternatively, within Word, use the following key combination: ctrl+shift+P, which stands for "open new from template.]

Click "choose" and start typing.

Now, when you save your work for the first time (make sure to save often!), it'll prompt you to enter a file name, and you'll have made a new note document without affecting the template at all.

There you go, you're all set!

hi @mugglstudies !! thanks so much for the ask! i’ve actually just recently started using cornell notes, and so far they’re great! i’ll explain my method of taking them below: 

most generic looseleaf paper has that little margin thingy on the left (and if your paper doesn’t you can use a ruler to draw in a straight line about an inch or so from the left edge). i use this to write in subtopics/key ideas with a colored pen. if there are topics within subtopics, i just use another colored pen for these. i find that using colored pens makes things look really neat and pretty. 

in the right column, i write the actual notes/information in black or blue pen. i generally follow the outline method for this section. after this is done, i go back and highlight the important words/dates/names (hopefully in a color that matches the color scheme of the pens)

i really never do the summary thing at the end of each page, but you could draw in a thickish line separating this section from the rest of your notes and write it in?

i hope this helps! if it didn’t make any sense please let me know!! i’ll probably post some of my own notes soon, so those should work as an example if necessary :)

best of luck,

I like it! Almost as much as I like OneNote. If you’re interested, I break down my favorite and least favorite aspects below :)

my favorite things about notion:

i can add subpages! so instead of having a million random main pages like onenote, i can actually have subpages so everything is more organized.

i like all the possibilities of what you can add on a page. you can create columns with different blocks, add a calendar (and change the view it has), add tables, add code...and there’s just so many ways to organize information. its quite nice to have options!

you can download templates! when i was looking for a beginner’s dashboard for my research+personal things, i was able to mess around with other templates by other users! as someone who is still learning notion, this was the least overwhelming way to go about it haha. which leads to....

my least favorite things about notion:

it’s a bit overwhelming/lots of features and commands to learn, which has been a common theme amongst most new notion users. that’s why i recommend starting small or from a template. also, start using it for something not super important and/or during a time that’s not stressful. for me, i started over spring break with a personal dashboard, so i didn’t feel the pressure to get everything figured out.

i can’t draw directly in notion like i can with OneNote. and if i can, i just haven’t figured it out yet. but as someone who draws out problems for OCHEM2 and things of the like, that’s kind of a bummer.