Taking Notes: The Basics
Big Ideas!
The purpose of note taking is to..
Pro Tips
The purpose of note taking is to..
- Force your brain to be an active participant in learning during class lectures so you don't "zone out" and you remember more of what you're taught
- Have information to review at a later date, because repetition and review also help our brain create long-term memories
Pro Tips
- Give yourself lots of room to write (don't be afraid to use paper and skip lines)
- Let your strategies adapt to fit your information (don't write a paragraph when a diagram would do better and faster)
- Listening to the lecture is MORE IMPORTANT than writing so don't stress about grammar or spelling. If a word repeats again and again, then make up a symbol for the word, shorten to an acronym, or just use the first letter capitalized so that you don't get a hand cramp (ex. Learning Theory could be replaced with "LT"). Notes are for you, not for the teacher.
- Audio recordings and pictures are only useful if you USE THEM at a later date. Listen to the audio and regularly pause to mentally quiz yourself, asking interesting questions that you can only answer with what you've just heard-- like you're playing Jeopardy! Analyze the picture you took of the board and use it to write a summary or draw your own picture. The trick with memory is not to repeat the fact like you're a parrot or a robot, but to be forced to digest and apply what you heard/saw.
- Schedule shorter, regular review sessions. Why? Cramming doesn't work. The brain learns better with many small "snacks" of information rather than one big greasy meal. (article link)
- Set yourself up for learning:
- pamper your brain with 8-10 hours of sleep
- exercise
- eat a balanced diet,
- lay off the energy drinks-- caffeine in large doses has a negative impact on learning. To learn more about how to plan your caffeine consumption, click here (article link)
- Hand-writing vs Typing
- Hand-writing your notes generally leads to better memory retention (learning). You write fewer words but those words are usually more meaningful.
- Typing usually means that you can write more, faster but you will likely retain less.
Note Taking Strategies (Gotta Catch 'Em All!)
![Picture](/uploads/4/1/7/1/41714241/published/cornell-notes.png?1551361934)
Cornell Notes: this format is good for most classroom situations like taking notes during lecture and also when studying from a textbook. The "cues" in the left column, or recall column, are super helpful when you're preparing for an exam or research paper-- it's like giving a hashtag to your information for easy searching. (video link)
![Picture](/uploads/4/1/7/1/41714241/published/venn-and-now.jpg?1551361927)
Graphic Organizers: these are visual formatting options of summarizing information that fit the format of the lecture. (video link)
Examples: compare & contrast, sequence & order, cause & effect, description, and concept G.O.'s like webbing for linking facts and big ideas (see Mind Map).
Examples: compare & contrast, sequence & order, cause & effect, description, and concept G.O.'s like webbing for linking facts and big ideas (see Mind Map).
![Picture](/uploads/4/1/7/1/41714241/published/doodle-note-page-header.png?1551361921)
"Doodle" Notes: ideal for multi-dimensional thinkers who already like to draw during lectures to stay engaged. (video link)
![Picture](/uploads/4/1/7/1/41714241/published/mind-map.png?1551362048)
Mind Maps: in the category of webbing but combined with some doodles, mind maps are a visual way of organizing long lists of information about a given topic into an organized diagram-- extremely useful for organizing a wild flow of thoughts and also for organizing your way too full brain after a heavy data dump of information. (video link)
Electronic Resources
Diigo: Chrome extension that allows you to bookmark with annotations (aka notes) about the site and on the actual site. You can highlight and put virtual sticky notes on a web page that Diigo will remember for later. This tool is SUPER useful for research projects. Naturally, there's the free version with basic tools and the super-charged version for a fee. (website link)
Google Docs: ideal for cloud-based word processing (and so much more!) that allows for COLLABORATIVE note-taking via any internet enabled device. Everything automatically saves and, even if you're away from wifi, you can still work offline until you're back in a hot spot (video tour)
Speech and Text Translators
Google Docs: ideal for cloud-based word processing (and so much more!) that allows for COLLABORATIVE note-taking via any internet enabled device. Everything automatically saves and, even if you're away from wifi, you can still work offline until you're back in a hot spot (video tour)
Speech and Text Translators
- Word Q, Speech Q
- Google Speech to Text
- Google Text to Speech