HOW TO MINIMISE STRESSFUL
ALL-NIGHT ASSIGNMENT
SESSIONS
HOW TO MAKE SURE YOU MAKE
THE MOST OF YOUR LECTURES…
Adapted from
ROBERT BLAKE
Effective Learning Programme for International Students,
Student Learning Development Centre
1
Look how far you`ve come…
Innocent little
Year 7
Year 9…
Mature young
man and a true
graduate of TBGS
ready to enter the
big wide world!
Are we teaching the skills to bridge the gaps?
Innocent little
Year 7
Year 9…
Mature young
man and a true
graduate of TBGS
ready to enter the
big wide world!
Note Taking :
outline
This session will help with ways of recording what
you hear / learn in lessons / lectures:
• A strategy for listening & taking notes in lectures
• How to lay out notes
• How to use symbols and abbreviations
• Some tips for research assignments
4
The Experiences of Old
Grammarians
• How did you find the experience of
lectures?
Were they vastly different from 6th form
lessons?
“They were different in that they
were a lot less interactive. A lot
of note taking and being talked
at rather than with!!”
The Experiences of Old
Grammarians
“Lectures were somewhat different
due to the lack of ability to ask
questions, which had always been
encouraged at school,
(which was very good)”
The Experiences of Old
Grammarians
“Lectures are massively different to 6th
form lessons, largely due to the
audience size, and thus the fact that
there is almost no individualisation.”
The Experiences of Old
Grammarians
“There is obviously a lot less communication
from teacher/lecturer to pupil/student than
at school and the person taking the module
moves through information through
PowerPoint and orally very quickly so you
have to concentrate constantly.
I have a lot of maths based modules and these
are the most different to A-level Maths as
you are only taught the methods, as opposed
to being walked through them, and then
having them marked.”
The Experiences of Old
Grammarians
“Different to most in that you knew you
had to take notes yourself and no
individual contact. Very easy to drift
off as there are so many people there.”
The Experiences of Old
Grammarians
• How do you tend to take notes in
lectures?
“Copy everything the lecturer says.”
The Experiences of Old
Grammarians
“I’ve tried a number of ways with
mixed success. At first I tried typing or
just taking notes which didn’t work
very well as there was no time to write
it all. Instead I find the best way is to
get prepared, print of the PowerPoint
before hand with six slides to a page,
and just add what the lecturer says,
this especially helps with revision as it
is all ordered ready for you.”
The Experiences of Old
Grammarians
“The first few times I tried to take notes I bullet pointed
things in my notebook. Then I realised all the lectures
were put on an electronic system, which enabled me to
procrastinate –
“oh, I’ll look at that later”
soon became
“oh, I can’t be bothered to go to the lecture seeing as it’s
online”.
I think technology breeds extreme laziness and I HATE the
fact that it is used in education. Obviously the benefits to
the world outweigh the problems caused to one person,
but I would actually say that if lectures were conducted
in the classic ‘blink/talk/yawn and you’ll miss it’ fashion, I
would do infinitely better.”
The Experiences of Old
Grammarians
• How do you tend to take notes in lectures?
“Similar to 6th Form, concise, abbreviated
keyword phrases, annotated with arrows for ease
of reading.”
• Do you find your notes effective when consolidating work
or using them for essays?
“Very much so – often lecturers phrase things in
the most logical/coherent fashion, which can be
emulated in the essay.”
Teaching in 6th Form
How would you describe your
lessons / teaching style?
What the students suggested…
• Key points/ questions
highlighted
• A structure/ strategy for note
taking when discussion is
taking place
• Handouts – mixed reviews
Strategies for more
effective note-taking.
Practising Note Taking- SQL2R
•To use lectures creatively, a balance between listening
carefully and taking notes is needed.
• One way to take more effective notes in lectures is to use
SQL2R:
• Surveying
• Questioning
• Listening & Note taking
• Recall
• Review
17
SQL2R
Surveying: listening for signposting.
Listen out for key phrases
that will help you pick out
key points from the
lecture/lesson
18
SQL2R
Surveying: listening for signposting.
Some examples of signposting language
I’ll begin by...
Well,...
One of the key questions...
So now we’ve come to ….
To sum up, what we’ve looked at so far...
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SQL2R
What should you use to take notes?
Laptop?
Dictaphone?
Memory?
Paper?
Folder/Note book?
20
The Cornell
System
Page Layout
Cue (Recall) Column
•You should not write in this area during the
lecture, while you are taking notes.
•The cue column is not created until you review
your notes (do this AS SOON AS POSSIBLE –
ideally the same day)
•As you study the material in your notes, you
should devise questions which the notes answer.
•These questions are the "cues" that should be
written in the cue column.
•By writing questions, you are forced to think
about the lecture material in a way that clarifies
meaning, reveals relationships between ideas,
establishes continuity and strengthens memory.
The Summaries
•A summary is brief - at most, only a few
sentences.
•The page summary provides a concise
review of the important material on the
page.
•More importantly, in writing a summary,
you are forced to view the material in a
way that allows you to see how it all fits
together, in a general sense.
•The summary should be written in your
own words... helping you to own the
information.
Note-Taking Area
•Don’t copy everything word for word!
•Key points
•To avoid missing information during the lecture,
you should develop a system of abbreviations you
or similar shorthand as used in TXT SPK LOL ROFL.
•As you take notes, realize that your emphasis
should be on the key ideas, rather than the actual
words used to convey those ideas.
SQL2R
Useful lecture notes reflect the structure of a lecture by
marking out the:
 Introduction
 Main points
 Sub-points
 Supporting detail
 References
25
SQL2R
Using Symbols
Symbols & abbreviations can save
you valuable time: enabling you to
write less & identify the main points
more efficiently.
26
SQL2R
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
e.g.
for example
i.e.
that is
etc.
etcetera: and so on
N.B.
note
Q.
question
No.
number
probs. problems
p./pp
page/pages
1st
first
max.
maximum
c.
about/approximately
ref.
reference
thro‘/thru through
•
•
•
•
•
•
imp
important
sit.
situation
eval
evaluation
analy
analysis
diff/diff.y difficult/difficulty
diff.t
different
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SQL2R
After the lecture remember to
Recall & Review.
Unless you have a superb memory, you’ll forget
much of what you’ve heard & made notes on,
So it’s necessary to find ways of recalling.
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SQL2R
Review involves assessing how well
you’ve been able to remember the
lecture information during recall
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SQL2R
•Key questions
•Key terms
•Ask questions about areas you
missed/ didn’t understand
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SQL2R
You can record your notes in a number of
ways including:
• Linear notes: with headings & sub-headings;
points are numbered sequentially
• Flow diagrams: suit logical thinkers
• Mind maps: suit visual thinkers.
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Practising Note Taking Strategieslinear
notes
An example of Linear notes:
Taking notes from lectures
•
Prepare for the lecture
•
Use tape/buddy + good note taking
•
Look for organisation clues from lecturer
Taking notes from readings
•
Know what you want from the reading
•
Look for organisation clues from headings, sections, paragraphs
•
Don’t write down examples
•
SQ3R Approach
•
Survey – flip through & layout
•
Question – structure and relevance
•
Read – twice through quickly
•
Recall – main points, facts & biblio. Details
•
Review – repeat steps & relate to task
•
Example from Exeter University Web site
http://www.ex.ac.uk/dll/studyskills/note_taking_appendix_a.htm
32
Practising Note Taking Strategies- mind
map
notes
An example of notes in the form of a mind map from Tony Buzan. Note the use of
colour & space
http://www.mind-map.com/EN/mindmaps/how_to.html
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Practising Note Taking Strategies- flow diagram notes
An example of notes in the form of a flow diagram
Liverpool Hope University
http://www.hope.ac.uk/gnu/stuhelp/notes4.htm#Note
34
Independent
Study
Research for Essays & Assignments
The Experiences of Old
Grammarians
• How did you find the experience of completing
your first essay?
• Was it vastly different?
• How did you find the research side of it?
“Yes, it was very different. Having to go
through multiple readings and then find
what it is you need to answer the question
is a lot different to simply having the
answer somewhere in a text book.”
The Experiences of Old
Grammarians
“Tends to be longer and needs to be
more thoroughly researched than
A-level.”
The Experiences of Old
Grammarians
“Not really. My note taking style is so
horrendous due to lack of practice,
that most of the notes I tried to take
consisted of spidery, barely readable
handwriting and doodles of medieval
weaponry.”
Step One: For future reference, record the bibliographic details of your reading in the
boxes below.
Name of reading
Author’s name
Year and place of
publication
Journal details (if any)
Page numbers read
Other bibliographic notes
Step Two: Surface read the reading and
Step Three: Read the reading more
complete the following tasks.
comprehensively and find quotes or ideas
from the text that supports each argument
and point that you’ve listed in step two.
In your own words, briefly describe the
main point or argument the author/s of the
reading is trying to make.
List three minor arguments that the author
uses to support his or her main point or
argument.
1.
2.
3.