Study Skills: Note-Taking
Taking and making notes, both in classes and reading outside of classes, is an important aspect of study and has been shown, by research, to improve student learning. Although it's good to keep notes short, research has also shown that the more notes you make, the more information you will remember. You should get a feel for what to take note of, but there are note-taking strategies that you can use. Research also shows that revising and rewriting notes helps boost your recall, especially if you do so as part of a group.
With respect to taking notes by hand or using a device, the jury is still out. Some research suggests that taking notes by hand is better, but this isn't a well-developed research area (but the effectiveness of taking notes is very well established) and some research indicates no difference between paper-based and digital note takers. The important thing is finding a note taking system that works for you!
Notes can
- help you to recall key points and relevant details about what you have heard in lectures or read
- help you to recall key ideas of a text
- help you better understand the material being taught
- help you with revision for exams
- help you concentrate on what is being said in class
- often contain information that can’t be found elsewhere
Classes
The classes page has some advice on getting the most out of your classes, but here's some recommendations about taking notes in class:
- Come prepared- take a look at the notes you made in the last class and if you can, do a little reading on the subject of this class
- Focus on the content, not the speaker
- Don't try to write everything down. Try to concentrate on capturing the important points.
- Don't worry about writing in complete sentences
- Don't worry about spelling and grammar
- Use abbreviations, so that you don't have to spend as much time writing, but be consistent with their use!
- Try to structure your notes
- use headings
- give each new point, a new line
- leave plenty of space for additions and corrections at a later time
- Make sure your writing is clear enough to read
- Write down anything you don't understand with a question mark so you can follow this up later
- Use images or diagrams to represent concepts and ideas
- You need to listen to what's being said, so keep your notes brief and plainly written
- If you have handout or slides, print them out and bring them to the class
- but don't just copy what's written on them
- Look for signposts that something important is being said
- Verbal cues - "Summing up..." "Crucially..." "This is important" etc
- Non-verbal cues - body language, hand movements, facial expression etc
- Visual cues - slide content
- As soon as you can after class, read through your notes and:
- tidy them up
- make sure you can read them
- fix spelling and grammar
- expand abbreviations
- fill in anything that's missing and and anything extra that you might have missed
- think about using colours and symbols to highlight and emphasis anything important e.g
- yellow for main points
- blue for keywords
- green for important people
- stars to draw attention to anything you think that is important.
- Be aware that highlighting and emphasising is not an end in it itself, it's to help you when looking at your notes
- Follow up on anything you marked with a question mark
- Identify anything else that you need to follow up.
Reading
There are several note-taking techniques that you could use, most of which can also be used in class.
- The SQ3R method of effective reading can be used to take effective notes.
- Make notes as you survey, question and read.
- Mindmapping, which has been mentioned as a technique for getting started with assignments can also be used to take notes.
- Start your topic or subject. in the middle of the page
- From the centre, create branches for each of your concepts or ideas which flow out of the central topic.
- From these concepts or ideas, continue to branch out as required
- Consider using
- Using images and symbols to help distinguish ideas
- Highlighting keywords in colour
- Using multiple colours in the map to distinguish between different ideas
- The Cornell Method, which is a system designed for college students
- Get a piece of paper and divide it as in the image above (or download the template)
- Use the right hand column to take notes
- After you have finished reading and note-taking, fill in the left hand column with keywords that describe the main points of your notes
- In the bottom section,write a summary based on your notes
Remember, there is no one right way of taking notes: the important thing is to find a method that works for you.
Taking Digital Notes
Pen and paper stands the time, but you may find it easier to take notes on your device as you watch. Phones aren't good for this though, and it's better to - if you can - watch recordings on a tablet or preferably a laptop. Phones are fine but other devices have bigger screens and you can do multiple things at once on a laptop. There are a few options available when it comes to taking digital notes:
- Notepad. Notepad is a pretty basic text editor that comes with Windows operating systems. If all you're doing is typing text, then this is fine. In fact, it's probably good for taking notes during a lecture or recording because of its simplicity. You might want to transfer your notes into something a little more sophisticated afterwards however
- Word or other word processing software is perfectly fine for taking notes. Some people swear by Word as a note taking option, some people swear at it.
- Evernote is a specialist note-taking app, which you can also use to organise, archive and manage your tasks. Notes can be text, drawings, photographs, or saved web pages. It's available for Windows, Mac, Android and iOS and operates on the "freemium" model - a free version with limited functionality and a paid version with more bells and whistles. Notes can be organised, annotated, commented upon, search and exported.
- OneNote is part of Microsoft Office but also exists as a free standalone version for Windows, Mac, Android and iOS. It does pretty much the same things as Evernote, with the exception of saving web content.
- Google Keep is completely free to use with fairly standard note-taking features, but integrates well with other Google products
- Simplenote has a clear and clean interface like and isn't as sophisticated as some apps, but is free to use
There are many other dedicated note-taking apps available, but what you should use will depend upon your level of comfort using apps. The likes of Evernote and OneNote have lots of features but might be more complicated to use. If you prefer less complicated apps, Simplenote or even Notepad might be better options.
