To have excellent academic results or to better affirm your professional career, taking notes effectively is a very valuable skill for memorizing, declaiming or recalling information. Without good notes you could take a full semester of courses and be left with nothing to prepare for the exam; or your boss might send you to a week-long lecture series to see you come back with a blank stare. However, taking notes is only half the job. By following these simple steps and tips, you will not only learn to take notes, but to do so in order to practice the knowledge and memorize the content.
Steps
Step 1. Plan ahead
If you are going to a class, seminar or conference, make sure you bring everything you need to be able to listen well and take notes effectively. If the course has a precise deadline, keep this in mind throughout the year, it will help you continue to follow to discover the next topic or lesson. Don't forget a good amount of paper, writing materials and, if necessary, eyeglasses or hearing aids as well. Always carry a spare pen or pencil, preferably two or three.
Step 2. Use highlighters
It is important to underline the essential points in view of the next review. You don't need a whole set of colors, two should be enough, one for the most important points and the other for the secondary ones or interesting facts.
Step 3. Stand in a spot where you can see and hear the person speaking clearly
Having trouble seeing the board? Arrive early to make sure you get a seat in the front rows.
Step 4. Think about what you want to remember
Why are you attending the class or seminar? Why did your boss send you to the conference? While it may instinctively come naturally to you to write everything you see or hear to the letter, you will need to remember that you are taking notes and not writing a story.
Step 5. Focus on information that is new to you
As tempting or spontaneous as it may be, jotting down things you already know won't help much.
Step 6. Develop a note system that allows you to write quickly, extract key concepts, and at the same time easily find information later
Consider for example the use of a particular writing or the subdivision of the notes into different sections (or columns if you are using a pad or a computer). Also think about learning or creating an abbreviation system to help you write faster.
Step 7. Make your notes legible and concise
If you can't read them, maybe you are writing too much; write less or use a computer.
Step 8. Use short, meaningful sentences, and shorten when needed
Don't use abbreviations that you then fail to recognize.
Step 9. Highlight the key words or phrases
Make the important things stand out. If a certain concept is emphasized in the speech, make sure the same is done in your notes.
Step 10. Use symbols that have a clear meaning
Arrows, dots, boxes, diagrams, tables, diagrams, and the like are often great ways to remember key concepts and associate them with each other.
Step 11. Take notes with future use in mind
As you write, realize that you will have to go back to those notes later and understand them. If you find the time, review them as soon as you are talking about familiar topics. Or, come back to review them as soon as the lecture or conference ends and the topics are still fresh in your mind.
Step 12. Share your notes with others
Swap notes to increase the material and improve understanding and learning. By sharing your notes with others, you will often be encouraged to take them more completely and comprehensively, and to use clear and understandable writing.
Step 13. If you are reading in a book, for example for an English literature class, make sure you have a pad of Post-It notes handy, as you may not be allowed to write directly in the book
In these situations, also write the reactions of the class or the audience on the Post-Its when a certain type of language is used by the author; some form of figurative language is always present, especially in Shakespeare's plays for example. Write down those reactions and include your own comment as well.
Step 14. Try to make your notes as enjoyable as possible so that you may want to reread them later
Write in different colors and, if you have the time, draw or paste images. Write in different forms. Make the headlines wavy, or change the font, if only for the fun of it.
Step 15. Insert a few lines on the clipboard to ease the monotony of reading them in boring book style (for example, I happened to write “weird turtle” in my business notes just to laugh alone)
But be careful not to do it too much! You'll just get distracted.
Method 1 of 1: Question and Answer Method
Step 1. Ask questions in your notes
Step 2. Write the answer under the question
Step 3. Memorize the answers
Step 4. Ask someone to test you
Advice
- If something is repeated more than twice, it is probably important and deserves attention.
- When taking notes, be sure to underline any keywords that may reappear on the exam.
- Limit yourself to short sentences and bulleted lists - remember these are just notes, not an essay or an article.
- Make sure you have notebooks or at least different pages for each subject, and remember to classify or label them
- If allowed, you can use several very colorful highlighters. In this way, seeing the colors you will want to take a look again.,
- Pay attention to what you are saying and don't get distracted by something or someone else.
- Write down the most important things to know
- Don't write every single word you are hearing
- Write using different expressions, it will help you get the idea into your head.
- Use software, such as Evernote for example, to rearrange your notes.
Warnings
- Don't get distracted by people other than the speaker or professor.
- Use a separate sheet or bring some post-its for the engravings, possibly number what you have written on both pages, marking what corresponds to what.
