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Back to Basics: Perfect Your Note-Taking Techniques
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Purpose of taking notes
Note-taking serves one simple purpose: to help you remember information.
Although we might associate note-taking with school, it's something most of us continue doing for the bulk of our lives.
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Keep your notes simple
Keep them short, but have enough triggers in the keywords to jumpstart your memory when you look at them again:
- Stick to keywords and very short sentences.
- Write out your notes in your own words.
- Find a note-taking style to fit both your needs and the speakers.
- Write down what matters.
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Outdated techniques
Rereading your notes, highlighting them, underlining them, and even summarizing them - all take a lot of your time.
Better methods include taking breaks and spreading out your studying (known as distributed practice), and taking practice tests (which isn't really applicable outside of school).
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SIMILAR ARTICLES & IDEAS:
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The Outline/List
Is a linear method of taking notes that proceeds down the page, using indentation or bullets to denote major and minor points.
Pros: it records content relationship in a way tha...
The Sentence Method
The goal is to jot down your thoughts as quickly as possible. Format is kept to a minimum: every new thought is written on a new line.
Pros: Is like free writing for notes.
Cons: lack organization and notes can be hard to understand.
Works for: meetings or lectures that lack organization; when information is presented very quickly.
SQ3R (Survey, Question, Read, Recite, Review)
- Skim the material for bolded text, images, summaries, to produce a list of headlines;
- Each headline is then written in the form of a question;
- Record your “answers” to the reading questions under each corresponding header;
- Once you’ve finished reading the text, write a summary of the material from memory—this is the “recite” part of the process.
- Finally, review your notes to make sure you’ve completely grasped the concepts.
Works for: dense written material.
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The Outline method
It requires you to structure your notes in form of an outline by using bullet points to represent different topics and their subtopics.
Start writing main topics on the far left ...
The Cornell Method
- The page is divided into 3 or 4 sections (top for title and, bottom for summary, 2 columns in the center).
- 30% of width should be kept in the left column while the remaining 70% for the right column.
- All notes go into the main note-taking column.
- The smaller column on the left side is for comments, questions or hints about the actual notes.
The Boxing Method
All notes that are related to each other are grouped together in a box.
A dedicated box is assigned for each section of notes which cuts down the time needed for reading and reviewing.
Apps are especially helpful for this method because content on the page can be reordered or resized subsequently.
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Note-Taking
Note-taking will always be at the core of learning and education. We are often encouraged to take notes during lectures to have a record of the knowledge being shared by our teache...
Note-Taking Vs. Note-Making
Note-taking:
- Usually done while listening
- Fast-paced
- Uses the author's original language
Note-making:
- Commonly done while reading
- Self-paced
- Uses our own language and understanding of the material
The Difference Between Note-Making And Note-Taking
The biggest difference between the two is that the former is easier to forget than the latter.
With note-making, it is easier to understand and remember because of the generation effect - the phenomenon wherein information is better remembered if it is actively created from your own mind rather than simple read in a passive way.