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How to Take Better Notes
- Listen Hard, Listen Well. You can only write what you've heard, thus efficient notes reflect good listening skills. Concentrate on the lecture, and jot down the important points emphasized by the professor.
- Be Systematic. Organize your notes so you can easily understand them later. Keep a separate notebook for each course and use different sections to keep track of questions, definitions, comments, and assignments. That way, everything stays in the proper context.
- Use Your Own Words. Do not write the exact sentences of the lecturer. Listen and understand the gist. Then, paraphrase the idea and use your own words. When you read your notes afterwards, you'll remember how you understood the message, and not just how the lecturer pronounced the words.
- Record the Lecture. Nobody can absorb all the information in a class all at once. You can use a voice recorder in class and add to your notes by listening to the recordings to pick up points that you may have missed.
- Link the Ideas. Notes often contain chunks of several ideas that seem unrelated at first. Remember to connect one point to another by defining relationships. Depending on your learning style, you might create grids, charts, or lists to track the flow of a concept.
