For Students: Note-Taking Skills during Lectures
If you want to gain maximum of you lecture, you must have good note-taking skills so that each and every point being said in the class room become yours. Here are some tips of note-taking i am giving to you. You may find it useful. So have a look.
Before the class room
1. Before going to the class, do have a look on the previous lecture and point out what you have not understood and try to clarify it in the forthcoming lecture.
During the class room
2. Concentrate on what is being said in the class. Don’t dither to ask any thing if you are not getting properly or if you have any doubt.
3. Start each new lecture on a new page and specify the date of the lecture properly.
4. Leave blank space within your notes so that you may insert your comments or any reference within there.
5. Make your notes as brief as you can. Don’t write full sentences. Just write few words which you can understand later. If you go for writing whole sentence, you will miss the many more information what your lecturer is saying and soon you will found yourself out of flow.
6. Develop a system of abbreviations and symbols you can use wherever possible.
7. Note all unfamiliar vocabulary or concepts you don’t understand. This reminds you to look them up later.
8. Don’t try to write down everything the educator says
9. Concentrate on picking out the relevant points only
10. Write notes in point form with separate sub headings
11. Develop your own shorthand
12. Write down any references given in class to read later
13. Underline key phrases in red, or with a highlighter pen
14. Use titles, subtitles and bullet points
15. Produce a summary list/table at the end of a section
After the class room
16. It is extremely important to review your notes within 24 hours. If you will not do so, you might forget your symbols or shortcuts which you inserted in your notes in the class room.
17. Edit for words and phrases that are illegible or don’t make sense. Write out abbreviated words that might be unclear later.
18. Edit with a different colored pen to distinguish between what you wrote in class and what you filled in later.
19. Fill in key words and questions in the left-hand column.
20. Note anything you don’t understand by underlining or highlighting to remind you to ask the instructor.
21. Compare your notes with the textbook reading and fill in important details in the blank spaces you left.
22.Consider rewriting or typing up your notes.