Taking notes in class promotes active listening, and will give us visual learners something to remember. Thoughtful note-taking will help you better understand information, which is a major key to academic success. I’ve compiled some advice on how to become a successful note-taker in college. Hint: it requires a pencil and paper.
Always take hand written notes
You might be asking yourself: hand-written? What century is this — the 1800’s, who are you Jane Austin? No, but one thing I do know is that when you hand write your notes you are more likely to retain the information. Taking your notes by hand may actually save you more time in the long run when you are studying that information later on. There are certain tasks that laptops are better at, like faster typing for wordy-lectures, or storing them in the searchable cloud. Handwritten notes aren’t searchable, but that’s a good thing. You’ll write fewer notes, and be more familiar with where each idea is in your notebook.
Develop a short-hand method
Figure out a system of word shortening that you can use for faster note-taking. I always shorten the word “people” to “ppl” — it’s not fancy, but it works. If you are in a class that talks about government a lot, you can shorten it to “govt” or you can shorten the word “president” to “prez”. It’s going to make your life a lot easier when your professor is rambling on and your hand is literally dying. It’s gospel truth.
Take notes only once
It’s good to recognize when a professor is repeating a concept. You don’t need to rewrite that information — one set of notes is more than enough. We are not parrots. Our job is not to repeat, our job is to take notes only once and to do so efficiently, commit it to memory, and then remember during an exam. We are more like mother birds, we eat the information, regurgitate it, and feed our offspring. NBD.
Figure out your professor’s slide strategy
If you are able to copy down every piece of information before your professor flips to the next slide, then take notes on what you think is important. But, if your professor is providing you with too much information on the slides and you are not able to take notes on everything before they smash that button, then you need to consider a different approach. Start with the main bullet points, then copy anything else you think is important. Be thoughtful, if you have the time. Sometimes your professor will fly completely off the rails and won’t provide you with any slides or notes. Handle this by only writing down the main themes. It’s more important that you hear what those are, versus scribing random sentences here or there.
Professors will start off main theme discussions with a “Today, we are talking about.” Keep your ears peeled for whenever your professor re-references something and it seems like a main subject. That’s going to be one of the subtopics that you write down. And then, anything related to that subtopic that is particularity nuanced and difficult to remember, you want to write down all of those facts. Easy peasy lemon squeezing. When in doubt, write it out.
Get f*ckin artsy
Make note taking fun, because then you’ll want to take more notes. Get creative, draw some pictures. The more creative your notes, the more they will stick in your memory. There is so much inspiration for creative note-taking on #studygram. Get inspired, and start note taking!
