Top Ten Tips: Note-taking
By Jain from the Student Team
In this podcast, Student Team members Raghav and Anna discuss the note-taking tips that they’ve learnt the hard way over their years studying at university. Whether you’re a note-taking pro or you struggle with learning all the content when it comes to revision, these tips will give you some ideas on how to improve your skills.
This blog post follows the podcast content closely, so if you’d rather listen, find it here:
Top Tip 1
Are your notes too chaotic? Draw a mind map to identify and emphasise connections between ideas and details.
Often, it’s easy to end up with your notes looking chaotic especially towards the end of the semester. This makes it hard to see they all link up to the bigger picture. A good way to organise them is by drawing mind maps to identify and emphasise the connections between bigger ideas and their details. You could also use online organising software such as MindGenius, MindView and MindManager. If you want to give these mind mapping software a try, they are available to use on University PCs and loan laptops.
Top Tip 2
If you’re more of a visual learner, colour-coding your notes can help you organise complicated concepts and recall information easily during exams.
If you find you are more of a visual learner, colour-coding your notes could be helpful either by using coloured paper or coloured pens. You could use different colours for organising complicated concepts which may also help you recall information more easily during exams.
Top Tip 3
The KWL technique can help you focus on relevant information. It’s perfect if you get side-tracked and can’t concentrate on information you actually need.
It’s not uncommon to get side-tracked and forget what information you actually need to learn. The KWL technique can help you focus on what the relevant information is that you need to learn. It encourages you to consider what you already know, what you want to know and what you have learnt during the course of your learning. That way you’ll know you have learnt everything that you wanted to.
Top Tip 4
Are you an active learner who asks questions as you take notes? Use the Cornell system for more structured notes.
Some people are active learners who learn well by asking questions when they take notes. A good way to organise these notes is the Cornell system. The Cornell technique is a great way to make sure you know exactly what’s important in your notes as you can highlight the key points that you have expanded on. It’s also a great way to help bring up questions you have about the material.
Top Tip 5
Evernote is ideal for active learners who take notes as they go. Notes can be saved as images, word files or PDFs and easily organised into notebooks.
There are plenty of software online available to all University of Manchester students. Evernote is particularly useful for learners who take notes as they go. These notes can then be saved as images, word files or PDFs to be organised into notebooks. It’s ideal if you prefer typing to hand-writing notes.
Top Tip 6
Pull together notes from lots of different sources to synthesise and summarise across whole topics and broaden your understanding.
When it comes to note-taking it is easy to slip into a habit of just restating the information. Pulling together notes from lots of different sources to synthesise and summarise across whole topics and broaden your understanding is a good way to help you engage with the information. If you are able to create your own links and summarise the information, you will probably more likely to understand them better!
Top Tip 7
If you’re preparing to write an essay, using a questioning matrix to organise your notes and ideas into sensible essay sections may be very useful.
When it comes to writing essays it’s easy to get overwhelmed by all the notes you might have as you struggle to organise them into a structured essay plan. Using a Questioning Matrix template to organise your notes and ideas into sensible essay sections may be useful providing you with a clear structure to follow. It will help you address all the points you want to in order to have a well-structured argument.
Top Tip 8
Audio recording tools are good for verbal learners who prefer to hear and speak explanations of theories and concepts.
Audio recording tools are good for verbal learners who prefer to hear and speak explanations of theories and concepts. There are a few apps, such as audioBoom, that you can use on your phone to record and store notes.
Top Tip 9
Keep condensing your notes by revisiting them regularly as to not forget them!
Remembering your notes is difficult when there’s so many of them. One good way to help learn them is by condensing them gradually. If you keep condensing them slowly, every time you revisit them you’ll be more likely to remember them as you recall on the information you have learnt. It requires discipline but it’s better than trying to cram them in the night before the exam!
Top Tip 10
Flash cards are a great way to test your knowledge and flag up areas that need more revision.
Finally, a good way to test whether you can remember what you have learnt is by creating flash cards. Flash cards are a great way to test your knowledge and flag up areas that need more work. Focus more on the areas that you struggled with to help you really consolidate the material you find more difficult. If you don’t fancy hand-writing flash cards there are also online flash card apps such as Memrise and Quizlet.
My Learning Essentials offers a variety of note-taking workshops which can be booked here. We recommend ‘Note-taking: record, review, reflect’ and ‘Making the most of your mind: how to revise and study more effectively’ workshops, but there’s a huge list of other workshops too that cover lots of different aspects! There’s also a wide variety of Online Resources if you’re unable to make it to campus. We hope these tips will help you with your note-taking, good luck!
