Mastering the Art of Note-Taking: A Guide for College Students
Note-taking, whether we like it or not, is part and parcel of the higher education experience. Even in the fastest accelerated college programs out there, the amount of material you’ll need to digest, remember, and put into use can oftentimes be pretty comprehensive.
Because of this, learning to take notes effectively is a fundamental skill for student success. Being effective with your notes will make studying for tests more straightforward, reviewing your notes faster, and significantly increase your chances for success during and after your program.
In the following post, we’ll dive into various practical techniques, tools, and strategies to help you become a master note-taker.
Understanding the Importance of Good Note-Taking
Notes serve as your personal record of what’s covered in class or read from textbooks. While some colleges record every session and have them available later, like we do at CTS Canadian Career College, oftentimes your notes are all you take with you from one lecture to the next.
Therefore, effective note-taking not only helps you retain essential information but the process of writing everything down also helps you understand and work through the more challenging concepts of your courses.
Different Types of Notes
Not all notes are equal, or even meant to serve the same purpose. Since you most likely can’t write everything down that was said or covered in your courses, it’s critical that you understand how best to use your notes.
Most people would agree that there are not only different ways of taking notes, but always different types of notes we might want to take. Among them:
- Lecture Notes: These would be from the courses where your teacher gave a lecture. Ideally, your personal notes would cover key points and explanations during the class..
- Reading Notes: These would be notes taken from your reading material or homework. You would want to highlight important information from textbooks and articles here.
- Revision Notes: These are the notes you take with you before an exam and should be the most important information that is likely to come up again. These can be selectively taken from your lecture and reading notes too, since there’s a good chance not everything you jotted down earlier will be as essential for your test.
Making the best of your notes
Effective note-taking isn’t just about writing down what’s said or read—it’s about actively engaging with the material. This can include jotting down your own thoughts about the lecture, ideas that clicked, and things like that. It can also include your own take on the material – for instance, just because the professor said it one way, it doesn’t mean that there’s not an easier way to remember it.
Be sure to make your notes your own no matter the type you are taking. The more accessible you make them, the more likely you’ll be able to explain it again later!
Techniques for Taking Effective Notes
To be a top note-taker, you’ll probably want to examine the way you organize your notes before, during, and after class.
Before Class: Preparation Stage
Before attending class or starting a study session, use this time to prepare yourself because sometimes classes go so fast that you barely have time to organize after you take your seat.
- Review Materials: Skim through relevant readings or notes from the previous class to familiarize yourself with the topic. If the topics get revisited, you can then quickly go back and expand those sections so they’re not on two pages.
- Prepare Tools: Whether it’s pen and paper or a digital device, ensure your note-taking tools are ready. The last thing you want is to be stuck signing into your Google account where the bulk of your notes are when the teacher begins talking!
During Class: The Active Stage
During lectures or study sessions, you’ll want to be quick with your pen or keyboard. Like we’ve said before, not everything that’s said or covered can or should be noted down. To help understand what should be kept and how, try these strategies:
- Listen Actively: Good lecturers are ones who are easy to follow. They introduce a topic, discuss it, and then give a reminder of what was important about it. Try to focus on the main ideas and key points being discussed. If the teacher doesn’t do a great job, statistics, dates, and conclusions could be the elements you want to recall.
- Use Abbreviations and Symbols: Using your own sort of shorthand or code can really speed things up. For instance, abbreviations or acronyms take less time to type than full words or sentences. Just be sure to remember what they mean!
- Structure Your Notes: Consider organizing your notes in a certain manner. Have a summary section at the top with key points, but also a messier, long section that you can clean up and organize after.
- Ask Questions: Don’t hesitate to seek clarification on unclear points. This can also give you the chance to catch up if you’re a few points behind in your notes.
After Class: The Review Stage
Use your time after the class ends to organize and review your notes. Depending on how busy class was, there’s a good chance a lot of it will be unorganized.
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- Review Shortly After: Try to review your notes as soon as you can. When the material is still fresh, it will be easier to go over it quickly and efficiently, as well as recalling what the key points were.
- Summarize and Organize: Condense your notes into clear summaries and fix up your short or broken phrases. Of course, all that matters is if you find it clear afterwards.
- Make Connections: Try to tie notes of the day to those from previous lessons. Don’t be afraid to go back and add details to a previous page.
- Tagging and Categorizing: Some people take notes based on the date of the lecture, but it can also help to categorize them by topic. For instance, if you’re taking an office administration course, try organizing all notes around certain apps or programs together. Alternatively, you could organize your notes by topic – like all notes about bookkeeping in one spot.
Final Thoughts About Note-Taking
Mastering note-taking isn’t something that you necessarily figure out after the first college lecture. However, once you start taking notes and reviewing how you take and organize them, you’ll begin to have a better understanding of what method works best for you.
Are you worried about returning to college? Maybe even a little worried about your ability to effectively take notes and keep yourself organized?
At CTS Canadian Career College, we do what we can to help our students achieve their goals and find academic success. Part of this process involves offering recordings from all our class sections that students can review at their leisure. We know that not everyone starts their academic journey as a master note-taker, but we do what we can to help them get there.
If you’re curious about our student support services and how we can help you achieve your educational goals, be sure to contact us at [email protected].