How To Take Notes.185103820

How to Take Notes Modified from: http://www.newtonhomestead.com/notesincollege.html General Approach Unless you are a shorthand expert, it is not possible to write down every word that a lecturer speaks. Even if you were a shorthand expert, however, this approach would not be desirable. Consider note-taking both an art and a science. With experience, it is possible to improve your "eye" for discerning which of the ideas that a lecturer discusses are most important (an "art"). You can also learn to record these ideas most efficiently and meaningfully (a "science"). Before the Lecture  Complete the assigned reading before you go to lecture. Some students argue that they cannot understand the material until after they hear someone explaining it, while others will argue that it is difficult to gain much from lecture unless they have completed the readings. However, until you gain some experience in taking notes in college lectures, you should do the readings before lecture. If you don’t have a lot of time, then at least skim the assignment for key points, vocabulary words, and/or fundamental equations. You will probably find that exposure to the material before lecture will enhance your ability to focus on what the lecturer is trying to explain, reducing your feelings of confusion or being overwhelmed by the subject material.  Right before the lecture begins, label your note paper with the date and title of the lecture. Be sure to number your pages.  Consider writing in pencil, so that you can erase mistakes and avoid messy scribbles or "cross-outs" that are inevitable when taking notes with a pen.  Use the same type of paper for each lecture. Having a uniform set of notes at the end of the quarter will help you maintain a feeling of organization and control over the material. During the Lecture  Become an "amateur psychologist." This means that you should try to "get into the lecturer’s head" to understand what s/he is try to communicate, instead of just what s/he is actually saying. Use the following questions to help you decide what you need to understand and remember from lecture: -- What is the main point of this idea? -- How does this idea fit into the rest of the lecture? -- How can I best summarize this idea?

 Learn to balance your time in lecture between listening closely to the speaker and writing things down. Because most of what the lecturer says will be committed to your shortterm memory only, you should place an emphasis on writing down what is said and waiting until later to understand the difficult or unclear concepts. Again, determining a good balance between listening closely and taking notes rapidly will become easier with practice.  Use lots of space on your paper. Use headings, boxes, underlining, indentations, and skipped lines to help you organize the main points of the lecture. Avoid cramming information into a small space on your paper -- this only wastes time later when you’re trying to decipher what you wrote down. Again, be an "amateur psychologist," and try to imagine how the lecturer’s own notes have been organized for this class session.  If you are allowed to ask questions during the lecture, do so. Be aggressive in asking the lecturer to explain concepts that remain unclear to you.  Leave blank spaces on your notes if an idea is unclear, so that you can go back later to fill in the information. After the Lecture  If you have any questions, catch the lecturer for a few seconds right after class, before s/he leaves the room. It is far easier to ask a question while the ideas are still fresh in both your and the lecturer’s memories.  Skim through your notes. Make any changes, correct any errors, and fill in blanks where you didn’t have time to write things down during the lecture.  Write the date on any handouts you receive. File your notes and these handouts in a 3ring binder in chronological order. Analysis Students sometimes have a hard time making the transition from high school to college. Students who did extremely well in high school may find themselves struggling in college. Part of this can be due to increased freedom and now having to structure their own time, rather than having it done for them. Also, many students don't do as well because the style of teaching is so different. High school instructors rely more on textbook learning, whereas college professors rely more on lecture. Students find themselves inadequately prepared for this new style of teaching and have to rethink their study habits and skills in order to succeed. A relatively easy way for students to improve their retention and comprehension is by learning

how to effectively take notes. Several studies have been done on the importance of taking lecture notes in college and how doing so improves a student's grades. First, it is important to understand why taking notes is so crucial. A person's ability to remember material presented to them fades very quickly. According to Walter Pauk (1974), people lose their retention at the following rates: 20 minutes 47% forgotten 1 day 62% forgotten 2 days 69% forgotten 75 days 75% forgotten 78 days 78% forgotten Cornell Note Taking Method Modified from: http://ccc.byu.edu//learning/note-tak.php Six steps in the Cornell note taking system: Record Reduce (or question) Recite Reflect Review Recapitulate Record - Simply record as many facts and ideas as you can in the six-inch column. Do not be concerned with getting every word down that the lecturer says or with writing your notes grammatically correctly. Learn to write telegraphic sentences or a streamlined version of the main points of the lecture by leaving out unnecessary words and using only key words. To ensure that your notes make sense weeks later, after the lecture is over, fill in blanks or make incomplete sentences complete. Reduce or question - After you read through your notes, your next step is to reduce important facts and ideas to key words or phrases, or to formulate questions based on the facts and ideas. Key words, phrases, and questions are written in the narrow column left of the six-inch column. The words and phrases act as memory cues so that when you review them, you will recall the ideas or facts. The questions help to clarify the meanings of the facts and ideas. Recite -Recitation is a very powerful process in the retention of information. Reciting is different from rereading in that you state out loud and in your own words the facts and ideas you are trying to learn. It is an effective way to learn because hearing your thoughts helps you to sharpen your thinking process; and stating ideas and facts in your own words challenges you to think about the meaning of the information. When reciting, cover up your notes in the six-inch column, while leaving the cue words and questions uncovered and readily accessible. Next, read each key word

or question, then recite and state aloud, in your own words, the information. If your answer is correct, continue on through the lecture by reciting aloud. Reflect - Reflection is pondering or thinking about the information you have learned. Reflecting is a step beyond learning note content. It reinforces deeper learning by the relating of facts and ideas to other learning and knowledge. Questions like the following enhance reflecting: How do these facts and ideas fit into what I already know? How can I apply them? How is knowing this important? What is the significance of these facts and ideas? Review - The way to prevent forgetting is to review and recite your notes frequently. A good guideline to follow is to review your notes nightly or several times during the week by reciting, not rereading. Brief review sessions planned throughout the semester, perhaps weekly, will aid more complete comprehension and retention of information than will cramming the day before a test. It will cut on stress too! Recapitulate -The recapitulation or summary of your notes goes at the bottom of the note page in the two-inch block column. Taking a few minutes after you have reduced, recited, and reflected to summarize the facts and ideas in your notes will help you integrate your information. The summary should not be a word-for-word rewriting of your notes. It should be in your own words and reflect the main points you want to remember from your notes. Reading through your summary(ies) in preparation for an exam is a good way to review. There are three ways to go about summarizing: 1. Summarize each page of notes at the bottom of each page. 2. Summarize the whole lecture on the last page. 3. Do both 1 and 2, in combination.

The Sentence Method- Modified from: http://sas.calpoly.edu/asc/ssl/notetaking.systems.html#cornell Method Write every new thought, fact or topic on a separate line, numbering as you progress. Advantages Slightly more organized than the paragraph. Gets more or all of the information. Thinking to tract content is still limited. When to Use Use when the lecture is somewhat organized, but heavy with content which comes fast. You can hear the different points, but you don't know how they fit together. The instructor tends to present in point fashion, but not in grouping such as "three related points."

Three Examples: Example 1: A revolution is any occurrence that affects other aspects of life, such as economic life, social life, and so forth. Therefore revolutions cause change. (See page 29 to 30 in your text about this.) Sample Notes: Revolution - occurrence that affects other aspects of life: e.g., econ., socl., etc. C.f. text, pp. 2930 Example 2: Melville did not try to represent life as it really was. The language of Ahab, Starbuck, and Ishmael, for instance, was not that of real life. Sample Notes: Mel didn't repr. life as was; e.g., lang. of Ahab, etc. not of real life. Example 3: At first, Freud tried conventional, physical methods of treatment such as giving baths, massages, rest cures, and similar aids. But when these failed, he tried techniques of hypnosis that he had seen used by Jean-Martin Charcot. Finally, he borrowed an idea from Jean Breuer and used direct verbal communication to get an unhypnotized patient to reveal unconscious thoughts. Sample Notes: Freud 1st -- used phys. trtment; e.g., baths, etc. This fld. 2nd -- used hypnosis (fr. Charcot) Finally -- used dirct vrb. commun. (fr. Breuer) - got unhynop, patnt to reveal uncons. thoughts. Bibliography Deese, James and Ellin K. Deese. How To Study (3rd ed). New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc., 1979. Johnson, Sue. The 4 T's: Teacher/You, Text, Talk, Test - A Systematic Approach To Learning Success. California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. Pauk, Walter. How To Study In College (2nd Ed). Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1974. Raygor, Alton L. and David Wark. Systems For Study. New York: McGraw- Hill, Inc, 1970.