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Advice for Students: Taking Notes that Work - lifehack.org

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Saved by 57 people (-26 private), first by anonymouse user on 2007-09-07


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Not only do good notes help us recall facts and ideas we may have forgotten, the act of writing things down helps many of us to remember them better in the first place.

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The purpose of note-taking is simple: to help you study better and more quickly. This means your notes don’t have to contain everything, they have to contain the most important things.

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One of the reasons people have trouble taking effective notes is that they’re not really sure what notes are for.

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our focus while taking notes should be two-fold. First, what’s new to you?

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The purpose of note-taking is simple: to help you study better and more quickly. This means your notes don’t have to contain everything, they have to contain the most important things

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Anything you know you know you can leave out of your note

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what’s relevant? What information is most likely to be of use later, whether on a test, in an essay, or in completing a project? Focus on points that directly relate to or illustrate your reading (which means you’ll have to have actually done the reading…)

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what’s new to you

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Anything you know you know you can leave out of your notes.

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what’s relevant

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Focus on points that directly relate to or illustrate your reading

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  • Theories: Any statement of a theory should be recorded — theories are the main points of most classes.

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    Dates of events: Dates allow you to a) create a chronology, putting things in order according to when they happened, and b) understand the context of an event. For instance,

    Highlighted by crowverte

  • Definitions: Like theories, these are the main points and, unless you are positive you already know the definition of a term, should be written down. Keep in mind that many fields use everyday words in ways that are unfamiliar to us.

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    Names of people

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  • Images and exercises: Whenever an image is used to illustrate a point, or when an in-class exercise is performed, a few words are in order to record the experience. Obviously it’s overkill to describe every tiny detail, but a short description of a painting or a short statement about what the class did should be enough to remind you and help reconstruct the experience.

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    Theories

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    Definitions:

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    Arguments and debates:

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    Pay attention to other student’s comments, too — try to capture at least the gist of comments that add to your understanding.

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    Note-Taking Techniques

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    ut the bottom line is that your system has to reflect the way you think. The problem is, most students haven’t given much thought to the way they think

    Highlighted by jonosenior