Take the Most Effective Notes in College

Organization and diligence are paramount to success in college courses. It is up to you, the student, to understand the course material that is presented through various avenues including class lectures, textbook readings and assignments. Attending class lectures is extremely important because professors often emphasize valuable information that is critical to succeeding on the test. Taking detailed, accurate and legible notes will help you grasp the organization of material and will benefit you greatly at study time. Below are some simple note-taking techniques you can employ to help boost your test grades:

- Keep notes organized with lecture dates and chapter numbers. Staying organized helps ensure that you are not missing important material when you study for a test. Writing the date on all of your notes will help you stay organized should the pages get out of order, and also help remind you if you have missed any class meetings for which you need to get the notes. Likewise, noting the chapters being discussed in each lecture will help keep your notes organized and make it easy to reference material for which you need clarification or reiteration.

- Summarize important points and abbreviate words. Professors often speak quickly when lecturing. As a student, you will likely not have enough time to write down the lecture word for word, which is why summarizing material and abbreviating words is helpful. Rather than attempting to write down the lecture verbatim, summarize the most important points being covered by the professor. Be sure to include key terms, dates and names in your summary. If you create abbreviations of your own, be sure to make them obvious or make a side note of what each abbreviation means to avoid confusion later.

- Revisit your notes after class. After a class session of note taking, it is a good idea to read through your notes while the lecture material is fresh on your mind. The point of doing this is to be sure that your notes will be legible and understandable when you revisit them later. Many students find it beneficial to take this process a step further and rewrite or type their class notes. Not only does this give you a more streamlined set of notes to reference later, it reiterates the material, making it easier to learn.

- Read between the lines. Sometimes professors make note taking easy by specifying “this will be on the test.” When you are given such a valuable piece of information, be sure to highlight or otherwise notate its importance in your study material. Professors often provide insight into test material in more subtle ways as well. For instance, a professor may repeat a certain concept more than once, or mention “this is important,” “be sure to know this” or “you will see this again.” These clues should be noted as well to help ensure that you study the appropriate material. It is also a good idea to study heavily concepts that are emphasized in both lecture and the textbook.

- If appropriate, make recordings of lectures. For professors who approve, recording lectures is a good way to ensure that you do not miss important material covered during class. While you should still take notes during the lecture, a mini-recorder can help you fill in the blanks in your notes later if there is something you have missed. Listening to key parts of recorded lectures may also help you study, since material presented in a variety of ways is easier to remember.

Successful note taking is a skill that may take some practice to master. Developing and fine-tuning your own approach to thorough note-taking will help improve the quality of your notes as well as your grades.

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