How well are you taking notes?

By: Bridgette Brian

Its college time. You walk into your first class and sit down. Your professor introduces
the class and what it is going to be about. They then go into a slide show. They are talking about
the slides and stuff. You are trying your hardest to take notes not knowing what will be on the
exam or not. You have no idea if your notes are going to be right or not. You dont even know if
you are taking correct notes. You are trying to write everything down that is on the slide show
but you arent even listening to the professor. At the end of the lecture you just go home and
watch Netflix. This my friend is a form of bad note taking. In this paper you will learn the proper
way of taking notes and how to use your notes successfully in your college career. You will learn
how to use your notes to study for your exams.
First thing first, is how to take notes. There are many different methods of taking notes.
You could use a list, the Cornell Method, or mind mapping. A list is a bulleted way of taking
notes. It is very organized and you can write down everything that you need to know. The list is
great, but how are you going to study with it? Well, I guess you could just read over it but how
are you going to remember any of the information? The next method is mind mapping. You draw
a map with the center being the topic and then you branch out from there. The mind map is good
but how are you supposed to put big chunks of information on it? You cant write out a bunch of
sentences and draw a circle around it calling it a bubble. A mind map is great for mapping out
ideas but not great for loading information onto it. This leads me to my favorite type of note
taking, the Cornell Method. You have your paper and you draw a line down the side of it. About
one third of the paper. You draw your line straight down and then about a third from the bottom
you make it go over to the side of the paper. This is your set up for taking notes. On the big part
of the paper you take notes in a list form. The other side is for questions. I will explain more in
the next paragraph about that. At the bottom you do a summary of your notes.

You may ask why I like the Cornell method the best, and this is why. When doing this
you sit in class and take notes. After class you read over your notes and write a summary at the
bottom of your paper. In doing so, this summarizes your notes so that you know what is going on
and how to explain it in your own words. Next on the question side, you go over your notes and
write down questions that you think the professor might ask on and exam or quiz. In doing so,
you are able to create your own quiz that you can go over and try to answer without looking at
your notes. Doing this makes it so that you understand what the professor is teaching, and that
you have a baseline on what you could have an exam or quiz on.
This method is my favorite because in order to remember something you must go over it
at least seven times. The first step on remember things is to read the chapter and pay attention,
and listen to the lecture. The next step is to take notes, preferably in the Cornell method. After
you do that you should ask questions. This is where you write down questions in the question
spot on where you took your notes. Step four is to take a test. Quiz yourself on your questions.
Next, you need to review revise your questions and notes. This is where you can type your notes
so that they legible and professional. Going over it again helps you gain a better understanding of
your notes and what you learned. Step six is to take another test. And finally for step seven you
should review your notes yet another time. Following this method will help you remember what
was taught in class and is a way for you to kind of understand what might be on the quiz or
exam.
Now you may ask why taking notes is important. Heres why. Im sure you have sat in
class and listened to the lecture and thought to yourself, Oh, I will remember that. Yeah right.
That doesnt happen. Unless you have a great memory. Taking notes is a good way to know what
might be on the next quiz or exam. It is something that you can always refer back to. Sometimes

in future discussions in class the professor will refer back to the notes. This will give you a good
understanding of what they are talking about. A lot of college professors build upon what they
teach. They will teach you a concept one day and the next day they will teach a concept that
builds off of the concept that they taught the day before. Doing your homework before class will
help you get a better understanding of what the professor is talking about. If your professor says
to have a certain chapter read before class, do it. They will usually talk about that chapter in class
and give your more detail about it. Sure they might only touch on certain subjects but thats most
likely what they are going to quiz you about.
Taking notes while reading is very important. In order to remember what you read about
you should take notes on it. Take notes on the big ideas. What is stated in the introduction and
conclusion is something important. Anything that is bolded or bulleted it important too. Look for
items that elaborate on key ideas. This will give you a better understanding of what they are
talking about and what is important to know. Look for items that are repeated. If they mention
something more than once, it is likely to important. When you take notes from reading you
should paraphrase. Rewriting what the book says isnt going to help you remember it. When you
paraphrase you are putting the subject into your own words, which is a way of showing you
understand what is being taught. Paraphrasing will help you remember. If you think about it and
put your own take on what it is being said, then you will remember it yourself. Leave yourself
some space to write in things that you learned in class on the subject.
Now that we have talked about writing notes from a lecture and reading them, lets talk
about making them pretty. Type up your notes. Typing up your notes will clarify them. It will
give you a better understand of what you learned. When you do this, it is a way of reviewing
your notes, which is one of the seven things you should be doing to remember them. Having

your notes typed up will help you when it comes time for the exam. You will have something to
read that you understand. You wont be trying to read your handwriting that is barely legible. It
will be something that is easy to read and understand. This will also give you a good way to
organize your notes so that when exam time comes, you can just pull them out and have them
right then and there. You wont be scrambling to find them.
I know that a lot of students take their laptop to class to take notes. Heres my theory on
that, laptops are a distraction. Yes, you can type faster than you write, but from watching other
students, then end up on Facebook or playing games when they should be paying attention.
Research has shown that students who write out their notes rather than typing them remember
more. When you write notes you listen and pay attention to what is being said so you can write
down what you need to know. When you type your notes you end up just typing anything and
everything that is being said. Writing out your notes, you paraphrase and write in your own
words which is a way that your mind will remember it. If you type them then you type every
single word and you dont paraphrase. In other words, you should just stick to writing notes out
and just leave your laptop at your house.
In closing, this paper has covered a lot. From the best techniques of note taking, to
reading and note taking, to studying them, and to being organized. Taking notes in class is hard. I
get that, but your grades will surely show from it. From personal experience I will tell you that I
used to just write notes from a list and try to study them. I didnt get good grades in any of my
classes either. Since I have learned to take notes this way, I have improved my grades. Not only
have my grades improved, but I am actually learning what is taught and understanding what I
need to know for my quizzes and my exams. This is how correct note taking has changed my
life. Can it change yours?

Bibliography

http://classiclit.about.com/cs/articles/a/aa_takenotes.htm
http://web.mit.edu/uaap/learning/study/reading.html
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-learning-secret-don-t-take-notes-with-alaptop/
http://sas.calpoly.edu/asc/ssl/notetakingsystems.html