ARTICLE SUMMARY

There is no question about it: if you can take good notes in college, you have a better chance of getting good grades. But, what really constitutes good note taking? You could take diligent notes as you read through your course materials or keep up during lecture, trying to capture everything that’s presented… But, is that enough? In this note taking guide, I go over various techniques that will help you improve your performance. You will see why so many students end up being ill-prepared for their tests and exams and how you can avoid this problem for yourself.

This guide will get into the following topics:

1. The exposure process
2. Note taking for readings
3. Note Taking in lecture
4. How to process notes

The Exposure Process

In general, learning occurs in a predictable manner, through a series of small steps. Most students, without even realizing, approach their studies in a way that conflicts with the natural learning process. I refer to this ideal learning method as The Exposure Process, in that I have identified four key stages of learning that factor into the optimal learning & retention. If you can master these four stages, you will have no problem recalling what’s necessary during exams and tests. Read my article on this topic for more details.

Note Taking For Readings

Your readings will make up your first exposure to the course material. As such, the material will be foreign to you and you might find yourself tempted to jot down everything you read that you don’t understand (your reading notes). Many students do this and quite honestly, it is a waste of time to do so because you are more than likely going to end up re-writing the book. I’ll never understand why students are always tempted to do this. Rather than rewrite the book (which will mean nothing to you during exam time, believe me), take the time to simply read through the materials and then jot down any major questions that pop up as you work your way through. This is the first step of my exposure process. This is a wise approach because you will be exposed to the materials in lecture a second time around and so you don’t want to be concerned with too much the details at this point. Rather, you are aiming to simply understand the material well enough to follow along in lecture. Your lectures will then explain all the details as well as highlight what is most important and that is when you want to take comprehensive notes.

If you approach your readings in this fashion, you will get through them much faster and you will end up absorbing and understanding a lot more information in a single session.

Note Taking In Lecture

Good note taking in lecture is all about capturing all the material that is presented in your notes and understanding everything that is being presented.

Unlike your readings, lecture is perhaps the best time to be constantly taking notes on everything. The reason for this is simple: anything that is covered in lecture is extremely important. In light of this, you really want to be like a rocket that’s ready to launch as soon as the lecture starts.

Since you’ll be writing very quickly, to help you along, avoid getting into any fancy note taking… For instance, avoid color pens, trying to be too neat or the worst of them all, slowing down and ignoring the professor in an efforts to concentrate on and better understand what you are writing. When I discuss processing in more detail, you’ll understand why I suggest the above.

As soon as the teacher starts transcribing notes on the whiteboard, projector or PowerPoint slides, start copying everything down exactly as it’s laid out. As a side note, you might have access to a course website (many professors are doing this these days). On such a site, you will find a syllabus of all the lectures and even better, lecture notes posted! If there’s a PDF or PowerPoint, by all means, print off the lecture the before and then have it handy when they’re doing your readings, to help guide your efforts. To be sure, doing your pre-readings in general will help you prepare adequately for lecture. However, having the notes in advance will get you prepared even more so.

Now, you might have an objection to what I suggested above (i.e.: not slowing down in order to better understand what you are writing). To this, I say: if you have prepared in advanced for your lectures, you will have no problem blazing forward without slowing down too much. In addition, if you follow my exposure process, you will have already jotted down several questions for various aspects of the lecture that you do not understand. As such, your mind will already be geared to finding the answers to these questions throughout the lecture, and as such, you will be more inclined to be listening to the professor rather than tune out to organize your notes.

The last recommendation that I want to make is to make side-notes. As you go along and write down everything as it is laid in the lecture notes, you also want to be quickly jotting down any side notes (when relevant) that will support your understanding. Now, doing this is not the same as slowing down in order to understand your notes. When you slow down, you stop hearing the professor. With side-notes, you are still very much tuned into your professor’s voice, only you will make quick notes here and there to support your understanding. For instance, suppose he/she says something that will not necessarily make sense to you as it is laid in the notes but will make more sense to you with an extra side note? This is when you take the extra few seconds to jot down the extra information in order to help you out later on when you’re studying. In reality, you will forget certain concepts after your lecture has passed it will be your little side notes that save you in the end, when you are trying to re-process the information.

How To Process Your Notes

Lets be honest: do you study directly off of your lecture notes, or worse, your reading notes as well as your lecture notes? You can be honest, now is the best time! The truth is, most students make the mistake of using their lecture notes as their final study materials. Have you ever tried to study off of (and, understand) somebody else’s notes for a missed lecture? How well did that go?

By now, you will have had 2-3 exposures to the material made up by third-party sources (your reading materials and the professor’s notes). Because this material is not in your own words, it is not effective to study off of. If you truly want to master the material, you must re-write it in your own words so that you can teach the material to somebody else, re-teach it back to yourself when you study and finally, explain it back to your professor on a test or exam. Hence, the processing stage. At this step, you will take all your sets of notes (your initial questions written down during your readings, your lecture notes and side notes) and combine them into a fresh new set, complete with fancy colors (if you really must), neat headings, and whatever layout that suits you best in order to help you effectively understand the material. Processing is pretty much like putting the pieces of a puzzle together. When you did you readings, you were fact-finding, developing questions and getting background information. Then, your lecture provided you with all the answers to your questions. In addition, your side notes represented all of your understanding of the material. Now, in processing all this, you will produce a final set of notes that will combine all of these pieces of information into one coherent set of notes that will make up your final study guide. If you don’t understand anything at this point, now would be the most ideal time to get help. If you forgo your opportunity for help at this stage, you will most likely forget to ask for help later and you will never get your question answered, which could cost you points on an exam.

Once you process your notes this way (and, the sooner after lecture you do this, the better), the more successful you will be in the course. The reason for this is because your mind will become imprinted with course material in your own words (while it is fresh) and you’ll be basing all your notes on what is relevant and important in the course (i.e.: the professor’s notes) rather than guessing what you think would be important. Make sense?

Final Thoughts

This process may seem quite straightforward to you but ironically, most students choose to do the opposite of what I’ve suggested and end up complicating matters for themselves (more so than what is necessary). Once you implement this strategy and turn it into a habit, you will be on your way to simplifying your studying process so that you can enjoy your time in college and find balance.