Taking notes is an important part of the process of learning. While taking notes, you try to listen to whatever the teacher is saying or pay attention to the details of the topic while you are taking notes from a book. It helps you remember the topic effectively. Also, when you review the notes later, it triggers the memory process and helps reinforce the information more securely in the brain. Therefore, taking notes helps a lot in your exam preparation.
Taking notes is a skill that, if used correctly, can help increase your exam performance, as discussed above. Be it school, college, or university students, the world of learning revolves around note-taking. To derive maximum benefit from the act of taking notes, it will be helpful to learn the right way of doing it. This discussion focuses on providing you with five helpful tips from experts to help you take effective notes in less time. These tips can be applied while taking notes from a written text as well as from someone’s verbal presentation. Please read on!
5 Expert Tips on How To Make Study Notes
Read the Topic Before Attending the Lecture: Before going to the class, you must read the topic the teacher is going to teach thoroughly and go through the questions given at the end. This will help you understand what type of questions are asked on the topic so that you will pay attention to it accordingly. Also, reading the topic earlier will give you a headstart, and you will be able to understand it better by correlating your knowledge with what the teacher is teaching.
Most of the time, students are unfamiliar with the topic of discussion in the classroom, due to which they can’t understand it on a fundamental level. Having no idea about what the teaching is talking about, they end up understanding nothing. This has a very bad impact on their overall exam scores. Getting acquainted with the topic earlier is helpful to understand it on a deeper level in the class.
Also Read: 10 Motivational Quotes That Will Help You Study Hard
Write Your Notes in Your Preferred Language: If you are more comfortable learning in your own language than in English, you can write your notes in that language to make the learning process easier. The purpose of preparing notes is to learn the information. Whatever way suits you best, feel free to follow it. When you have understood the topic on a fundamental level, it will be easier for you to write it in the language medium of the exam later. If you think you grasp information better when you write it in a mix of English and Hindi, do that! It is fine if the notes help you achieve outstanding results.
Make Well-Organized Notes: If your notes are not organised, and the information is not clear, the whole effort of preparing them will go to waste. To reap the benefits of making notes, it is important that the information is written clearly and is easy to understand. It would be best if you mentioned the date when writing the notes each day. When you revise the notes, you will know when you wrote those in the first place, which will help in prioritising the topics you need to revise.
Another way to keep your notes organised is using different coloured pens for writing the title, subtitles, questions, and answers. During revision sessions, it will help to sort out the information faster. Also, while making notes, write down any doubts you have so that you can address those later. You can write the doubts in a specific coloured ink to be able to find those quickly when you are with your reference books.
Instead of writing long paragraphs, write fact-based information in the form of bullets or points. It will help you grasp the most important points from the notes so that you memorise those effectively and get a good score on the exam.
Skip Writing Everything: You might come across loads of information while reading reference books or attending lectures, some of which might not be important for your exams. If the notes are too vast, you will likely feel intimidated and hopeless before starting those.
To save time and energy, it is best to note down the points important for the exam and skip all the unnecessary details. Besides saving time while making the notes, it will also help conserve time during revisions. Consider writing the data in the form of abbreviations and short forms wherever you can. It will help decrease the size of your notes, making it more comfortable for you to study them.
Use Images in Your Notes: The human brain tends to respond to visual information more readily than to written data. So, it would be best if you tried incorporating images and visual aids into your notes wherever possible. Suppose, instead of explaining the structure of an atom in the form of a long paragraph, consider making a diagram of the same. All the information needed can be grasped from it in much less time, and you can even revise it later at a glance.
You can also use flowcharts to simplify lengthy and complex data and mechanisms. Suppose, if your topic is genetics in Biology, you can describe the mitosis and meiosis processes in the form of flowcharts more effectively than in text. You will end up saving time in addition to having better concepts.
Things to Avoid While Taking Notes
- Avoid referring to too many reference books to add points to your notes. Students commonly get distracted because lots of study resources are available in the markets. They try to get their hands on whatever books their peers recommend. However, the best thing to do is to choose one study material and follow it throughout the course. The source you choose should be high in quality and should provide you with all the information needed to pass the exams with good grades. You can ask for suggestions from experts or from seniors. Do not get distracted if you have chosen a book and are halfway through it when someone suggests an apparently better resource. Changing your study material and not sticking to one source will lead to chaos and confusion.
- Do not write your notes without paying attention to the topic. Be attentive in the class and listen to whatever the teacher is saying. The point of making notes is to learn, not just note down whatever the teacher is saying for the sake of it.
- Keep your notes clear and organised. If you make too many corrections here and there, it will be hard for you to understand your handwriting later when you review the notes. While making the notes, the information is fresh, so you might not realise that you can miss some points later. After opening the same notes after a few months, it will be hard for you to catch the points if they are not written clearly.
- Write only the important points when you attend lectures. It is impossible to write as fast as someone speaks. If you try to write down everything that the teacher says, your notes will be left incomplete, and you will give up on writing those. If possible, write only the important points and phrases that you think will trigger your memory when you will revisit the notes later.
- Do not skip writing the points you do not understand in your notes. It is human nature to avoid skipping the information that lies beyond our comprehension. If you fail to understand something, write it down and leave some empty space beneath it so that you can add more points to it when you consult reference books later. You can also ask your teacher for an explanation after the class if you do not understand a point.
- Review your notes on the same day you make those. Even if you devote only five to ten minutes of your time doing it, it will help you to a great extent later. It will also help you rectify any mistakes you might have made while preparing the notes, as all that information will remain fresh in your mind.
Conclusion
After going through the above discussion, you will definitely be more confident about making your own notes as you know the correct way. However, you do not need to follow every one of the tips mentioned above; follow only the ones that you find the most helpful and those that fit your learning style. We are sure that the ideas given here will help a vast number of students to prepare their notes for exams more efficiently.
Also Read:
FAQs about Expert Tips on How To Make Study Notes
1. How Does Note-Taking Help Students?
Note-taking compels the students to focus because they attempt to write down what the teacher is explaining in their notes. This encourages them to listen carefully and promotes active learning.
Taking notes enhances the understanding of the students around their course material. They tend to understand the concepts at the fundamental level.
Note-taking serves as a reliable resource for students to turn to for revisions. They facilitate effective revisions bringing back the memory of learning the topic back in time. This helps retain information for longer periods of time.
2. What are the Mistakes that Should be Avoided While Taking Notes?
Copying the Teacher’s Presentation Without Understanding:
Some students tend to write notes just for formality. They transcribe whatever the teacher says without trying to understand the concepts. Students must ensure that they focus on the topic while taking notes and process the information they are writing in their brain in the process.
Not Revising The Notes:
Only a few students tend to revise the notes after the class ends. The rest put them on a shelf or a table and forget about them. When they revisit the notes after a long time, they can hardly remember anything and need to go through the learning process again. The best thing to do is to go through the notes as soon as the class is over. It will help you retain the maximum information from the lecture.
Writing Notes in a Messy Way:
When in a hurry, students tend to make notes carelessly. They find it hard to decipher information from those later. Making incomprehensible and messy notes diminishes your chances of revisiting those later.
3. How to Avoid Distractions While Taking Notes?
If you fall prey to distractions while making notes, your notes will end up full of errors and missing points.
Also, you will miss the chance to actively learn the topic as you will be noting down whatever the teacher is uttering without actually paying attention.
To avoid distractions, turn your phone into silent mode in class and while self-studying.
Sit in the front row of the class to avoid side talks.
Also, avoid discussing or talking with your classmates during lectures to avoid making errors.
4. What is the Cornell Note-Taking Method?
The Cornell method of note-taking, which has been scientifically proven to be quite effective, was invented by Professor Walter from Cornell University in the 1950s. According to this method, students should make notes by dividing the paper into two columns and one row at the bottom. The column on the left should contain doubts and potential questions from the topic, while that on the right should contain the answers, explanations, and the theory part. A summary of the entire topic should be written in the bottom row to facilitate quick revisions. This method is helpful as students can hide the right side of the page with their hands while revising, reading the questions, and trying to answer those in their brain. It is a fun way of learning and yields great results.
