• Some initial habits include:
• Writing down everything the instructors says
• Poor organizational structure within notes (hierarchy of ideas)
• Failing to recognize “importance” cues
• Students view notes as “recording” rather than notes as a
method of learning
• Notes become a series of fragmented pieces of information
• Studies have shown that people lose their information retention
at the following rates:
Time
Percentage Lost
20 minutes
47%
1 day
62%
2 days
68%
2 months
75%
3 months
80%
• In surveys and polls, note-taking ranks within the top three skills
students say they most needed to learn in their first year of
college
• A 2009 study from University of Maryland showed that students
who were taught note-taking skills were able to capture 5560% of “critical points” in a lecture while untaught students
averaged 37%
• “Real-time” habits
• Organization, abbreviation, attention to key
concepts, instructor cues
• Review habits
• Reviewing your notes after class or before a
test
• Don’t use complete sentences!
• Never use a sentence where you can use a phrase. Never use a phrase
where you can use a word.
• Remember that the average lecturer speaks approximately 125-140
words per minute, and the average note-taker writes at a rate of about
25 words per minute.
• Come up with easily recognizable abbreviations
• For this to work, you must be CONSISTENT
• If you miss a statement, write key words, skip a few spaces,
and get the information later.
• Pretend that you are taking notes for someone else
• Listen for “cues” that tell you what information is important
• Material written on the board or items in bullet points
• Repetition
• Emphasis
• Emphasis can be judged by tone of voice and gesture.
• Emphasis can be judged by the amount of time the instructor spends on
points and the number of examples he or she uses.
• Word signals (e.g. "There are two points of view on . . . " "The
third reason is . . . " " In conclusion . . . ")
• Summaries given at the end of class.
• Overviews given at the beginning of class.
• Determine why what the speaker is saying is important. If you can
figure out the main idea, it will be easier for you to spot important
details.
• Look for the speaker's pattern of organization. In a lecture, a
speaker is generally referring to notes or some other source of
information. You can understand much better if you are able to
recognize what the speaker's driving at and how the speaker's
getting there.
• Filter out trivial details
• Don't let your mind wander. Your thoughts move far more rapidly
than the fastest talker, and the urge to stray is tempting.
• Take notes while you listen, don’t wait for the end.
• Students who write in cursive write MUCH faster than those who
print
• Learning to write in cursive is shown to improve brain
development in the areas of thinking, language and working
memory.
• Cursive handwriting stimulates brain synapses and synchronicity
between the left and right hemispheres
• The College Board found that students who wrote in cursive for
the essay portion of the SAT scored slightly higher than those
who printed
• Create a two inch margin on the left side of your paper.
• Write the main ideas/concepts on the right side
• Questions
•
•
•
•
• Questions which are answered in the notes on the right
• Questions you still need the answer to--ask a friend or the
teacher after class
• Questions the teacher might ask on a test
Key terms, vocabulary words, or dates
Diagrams or figures
Reference pages in a text
Steps in a solution process
• The information which is most general begins at the left with
each more specific group of facts indented with spaces to the
right.
• The relationships between the different parts is carried out
through indenting - no numbers, letters, or Roman numerals are
needed.
• Levels of importance will be indicated by distance away from
the major point
• Extrasensory perception
• definition: means of perceiving without use of sense organs.
• three kinds
• telepathy: sending messages
• clairvoyance: forecasting the future
• psychokinesis: perceiving events external to situation
• current status
• no current research to support or refute
• few psychologists say impossible
• door open to future
• If the lecture format is distinct (such as chronological like in
Social Studies), you may set up your paper by drawing columns
and labeling appropriate headings in a table.
• Determine the categories to be covered in the lecture. Set up
your paper in advance by columns headed by these categories.
As you listen to the lecture, record information (words, phrases,
main ideas, etc.) into the appropriate category.