How to Take Notes from the Textbook
So if you’re in school right now, your teacher has probably already started to teach you the curriculum, and some of my classes are just read the textbook, learn from the textbook, and come to class to be tested from the textbook. So really I am just reading the textbook and making notes then adding any needed information during the lecture whether in person in class or online through our school/khan academy/crash course.
DISCLAIMER: This is a system that I have been using for the past three weeks and is in no way perfect or a “universal” way of notetaking. If you can adapt part of this to use, or if you like to use all of it. That is your prerogative and I hope that this can help you the slightest bit.
So here is how some of my notes look, mainly all you can see are my history notes which I take in class, I don’t really write a lot for history, just because I “read” the textbook (it’s really just reading the summary at the end of the chapter) anyways so I write down anything that my teacher says that I feel is important or useful. I take down main ideas and if I had questions, I will read about them in-depth and also try and just search them up.
Write the main ideas, any headers you see will have a main point in the text underneath, so make sure you’re reading properly. Any tips “Exam Tips” write them down and box them in with a pen or highlighter so that you can tell what is important when glancing through. Also, start with primarily black and white notes, then highlight things when going over that are important and that you need to know.
Highlight vocabulary words, underline main concepts and themes, and then provide plenty of space for examples! Just jot down the important and write any work down. After class, maybe not right after, especially if you're in high school like I am but during that same day. Revise whatever you learned and add any more notes that you need so that when you go back that you can understand and connect everything that you have written down.
