EFFECTIVE NOTE MAKING
Note making is essential in college:
• For lectures, which are highly condensed methods of passing on information
• For reading, because what you don't write down, you don't remember
Note making is a skill:
• Most people feel deficient
• It can be learned
- This takes understanding of what you're doing
- It takes practice, which involves effort
Note making is difficult because:
• Spoken language is more diffuse than written
• Speaker's organization is not immediately apparent
• Immediate feedback seldom occurs
• Spoken language is quickly gone
- This makes analysis difficult
Five purposes for note making:
• Provides a written record for review
• Provides a definite, limited learning task
• Forces you to pay attention
• Requires organization, and active effort on the part of the listener
• Listener must condense and rephrase, which aids understanding
Sequence
• Listen and focus on meaning
• Evaluate what is being said
- Is it relevant to your purpose? What are the high points?
• Record the information
• Make use of it
Physical factors
• Seating
- Near the front and center – easier to see and hear
- Avoid distractions – doorways, windows, glare; friends, foes
• Materials
- Loose leaf notebook: lies flat - organization and additions are easier
- Two pens, wide-lined, easy-eye paper; use dividers
- Course, date, and topic clearly labeled
Before taking notes - PREVIEW
• Prepare yourself mentally - What do you need to get out of this?
• Review notes from last time and homework. Nail your attention down tight.
• Review the outline from your reading assignment
• Think through what has happened in the class to date
• Generate enthusiasm and interest
- Increased knowledge results in increased interest
- A clear sense of purpose on your part will make the course content more relevant
- Acting as if you are interested can help
- Don't let the personality or mannerisms of a speaker put you off
• Be ready to understand and remember
• Anticipate the next step and compare what you've guessed with what happens
Get Involved!
• Tune-in, look, listen for clues:
- Tone or gesture of Professor
- Repetition; cue words: "remember!" "1,2,3..." reference to text, "in your book it says.."
• Notice what conflicts with your current opinions
- They are harder to understand and remember
• Keep thinking...
- Look for emerging patterns
- Write questions in margins to be answered later
While taking notes
• Don't try for a verbatim transcript
- Get all of the main ideas
- Record some details. illustrations, implications, etc.
• Leave plenty of white space for later additions - underscore or star major points
• Note speaker's organization of material
- Organization aids memory
- Organization indicates gaps when they occur - you fill in later
• Be accurate
- Listen carefully to what is being said
- Pay attention to qualifying words like: sometimes, usually, rarely, etc.
- Notice signals that a change of direction is coming: but, however, on the other hand
• Be an aggressive, not a passive, listener
- Jot questions in your notes
- Do you believe what you're hearing? What do you believe?
- Seek out meanings. Look for implications beyond what is being said.
- Relate the material to your other classes and your life outside of school.
• Develop a shorthand of your own
- Jot down words or phrases; use contractions and abbreviations
- Leave out small service words, use symbols: +, =,&, ~)
• Try to get the hang of listening and writing at the same time. It can be done
- You may practice listening to the news on TV and taking notes
After taking notes (POST VIEW: Don't move - go over notes at once!
• Review and reword them as soon after class as possible
- Build review time into your schedule
- Don't just recopy or type without thought
- "Reminiscing" may provide forgotten material later
- Rewrite incomplete or skimpy parts in greater detail
- Fill in gaps as you remember points heard but not recorded
- Arrange with another student to compare notes
- Find answers to any questions remaining unanswered
- Write a brief summary of the class session
- Formulate several generalized test questions based on the material
• Use your notes as a learning tool
- Review at spaced intervals it is more effective than the same effort spent cramming
- We forget 50% of what we hear immediately, two days later, another 25% is gone. But
relearning is rapid if regular review is used.
- Compare the information in your notes with your own experience - don't swallow
everything uncritically
- Don't reject what seems strange or incorrect. Check it out. Be willing to hold some seeming
inconsistencies in your mind over a period of time.
- Build a good "thought map" of the ideas. Explain it to anyone who'll listen.
- Memorize that which must be memorized.
For more information visit our Web page! http://www.middlebury.edu/~learn
Office of Learning Resources • Center for Teaching, Learning, and Research • X3131