Study skills nites-aking

Study skills

“Taking Notes from Lectures”

            In college classes, lectures are still the primary way faculty deliver information to students. Progress has been made to make college a more collaborative learning process, but lectures are alive and well. Consequently, note-taking is still the primary mean of sorting, organizing, and processing this material.

            An essential skill for good note-taking is good listening. Most people believe that they are good listeners, but research has shown that the most students do not listen well. So first of all, you should try to sharpen your listening skills.

            Taking notes during a lecture can be a frustrating, almost overwhelming, job. Getting well organized is the best way to deal with the rush of incoming information. Here are some tips:

1.      Use a standard size notebook. A loose-leaf three-ring binder is the best because it allows you to insert handouts and rearrange you own notes.

2.      Sit near the front and the centre of the class. You will have the most direct communication with your professor, and you’ll less likely be distracted.

3.      Put a heading and a date for your notes for each day.

4.      Attend all lectures, even if attendance is not mandatory. Using someone else’s notes can help, but it is not substitute for attending the lecture. When you hear the information, process it, and write it in your notes, you are already beginning to learn the information. Reinforcement of the information through review of your notes completes the learning process.

5.      Try to prepare for each lecture by rereading the material in your text. You will find that you will understand the lecture better if you have some basic background. This preparation is one that varies few students take seriously.

6.      Learn to identify main points and not get bogged down in detail. Professors often give cues to what’s important by repeating information, changing their voices or rate of delivery, listing items in order of importance, and, of course, by writing on the chalkboard.

These tips will help you to be ready for taking notes, but what about the actual notes themselves? What should your notebook look like after a lecture? Well, let’s hope that it is not full of doodles in the margins which would indicate that your mind had wandered. In general, it should look a little an outline with clear main ideas (not labelled with Roman Numerals, of course) and some subpoints with a moderate you add notes from your text or from the next day’s lecture.

To learn more about a specific notetaking “system” such as the Cornell Notetaking System, take a look at one the books in the Study Skills Biography to see specific examples of notes.