When you finish school, it won’t matter how many stacks of notes you have, but how well you’ve learned the material. So if you’re taking notes that don’t help you learn, it’s time to reconsider how you take them!
With the purpose of note taking—to facilitate learning—clearly in mind, it becomes easier to figure out how to go about taking notes. Too many students take the court stenographer approach, trying to record every single word the teacher utters. The result is often frustration (and a lot of illegible notes). On the other extreme, some students—either because they’ve given up or because they don’t realize how important good class notes can be in the learning processfor their learning, take too few or no notes. Somewhere between these two extremes is a happy balance.
The key to getting the most out of a lecture or class discussion is to listen well. Think about how many memorable conversations you have had in your life in which you did not take a single note. To be sure, part of the reason a memorable conversation is memorable is that we are interested, but another significant reason is that we are really listening. Seen in this light, making notes becomes a tool you can use to augment your listening.
Here are some keys to listening well in class:
- Be ready to listen from the moment class begins.
- Know what to listen for. Keeping the big picture in mind will allow you to stay focused even when teacher strays from the main topic.
- Remember, the goal is not to end up with a transcript of every word that has been said. The goal is to listen carefully in order to identify main ideas and key supporting details.
- If your teacher allows it, and if it helps you, ask questions during class. Being an active listener encourages you to stay focused and gives you a chance to get unlost should you get lost during a lecture or class discussion.
- Get in the habit of consistently asking follow up questions, taking time to tidy or even reorganize your notes, and sharing notes with a study partner.
Two-column Notes Revisited
One of the most significant challenges many students have shared with me over the years is how to manage listening to the teacher and writing everything down, all the while trying to do so in a somewhat organized fashion. One of the best strategies I’ve come across is called the “Cornell method” or what is more commonly called “two-column notes.” Even if you’ve been required to use “two-column notes” in the past and didn’t love the experience, please, read on. The Cornell method can be an incredibly powerful note-taking system for use in high school classes that are heavy on lecture and reading.
At the heart of the Cornell method is a habit of noting key points during class without too much concern for organization, and then following up soon after class to review and impose some order on those notes. This pattern alleviates the stress of trying to manage everything at once, and creates a built-in habit of reviewing notes regularly rather than waiting till the night before a test. For a more thorough description of the system, with samples of printable notepaper, I strongly recommend following this link.
As always, I welcome your comments and questions.
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