Effective Note Taking Tips | Effective note-taking | Hints for Good Note Taking | Note Taking Strategies of Highly Successful Students | Note-Taking Skills

Effective Note Taking Tips

Learning how to take good notes in class is an important part of study preparation. If you don’t take good notes in class you won’t know what to study once class is over.

The following tips can help you taking effective notes:

• Make clear and accurate notes
  Clearly written, accurate notes help to capture information for later study and review. Taking accurate and clear notes will (1) ensure that you understand the subject matter being discussed, (2) help to concrete what is being taught in your mind and (3) will provide you the means to go back after class and review the subject matter being taught.

• Come to class prepared
  Before coming to class make sure that (1) you have read all assigned readings and (2) that you have reviewed your notes from the previous class. Coming to class prepared will help you taking much better notes. You'll be able to ask questions that will lead to more accurate and useful note taking.

• Compare your notes
  When class is over compare your notes to those taken by other students. Sometimes other students will pick up on things discussed by the teacher that you missed or didn't find important. Comparing notes will help ensure that your notes are complete and accurate.

• Organize your notes
  Put the day's date at the top of your notes along with any other relevant information (i.e. history notes, chemistry notes, etc.) This will help you to keep track of each days notes and increase your ability to go back and review your notes for exams and quizzes.

• Use abbreviations and symbols
  Use short sentences, phrases and easily remembered abbreviations and symbols in order to make sure you're able to keep up with the lecture. The following are few common abbreviations and symbols that student can use to speed up their note taking: i.e. (that is), e.g. (for example), w/ (with), w/o (without), &, + (and), = (equals, is). There are number of other abbreviations that you can come up with to increase your note taking speed.

• Write clearly
  It doesn't matter how many notes you can take if you can't make sense of your notes when the lecture is over. Make sure to write clearly -- especially if you're using abbreviations. It’s also useful to leave plenty of blank space in the left margin or in between ideas or new concepts so that you can come back later and add more information.

•  Review your notes
  Review your notes as soon as you can. Reviewing your notes directly following a lecture will make sure that (1) you understand your notes, (2) you understood the lecture and (3) it will help you to concrete in your mind the concepts and information you learned.

• Write down questions
  Quite frequently you're going to find -- especially as you enter college -- that it can be difficult if not impossible at times to understand everything the teacher is talking about. Make sure to write down any questions you have or concepts you didn't completely understand so that you can go to the teacher after class and ask specific questions or use reference resources to better understand difficult concepts.

Go to Back / Go to Next / Go to Main