<p>Hello!</p>
<p>I am current college freshman; I wrote this thread because I feel I am not a good note-taker.
My courses are mostly science and mathematics; I tend to have a high desire to write so-called "complete" notebook, which incorporates both the textbook and professor's lecture. I tend to try to copy down every single details (especially in science). This results in lengthy hours of note-taking process. If I did just copy down the professor's lecture or main points/summaries from the textbook, I strongly feel that I must restart the note-taking, which ends up very length like a study guide...</p>
<p>How do you people take notes in science and mathematics? I usually copy down the main points and evidences, but I also make connections between concepts. But the problem is that the process takes like hours per attempt.</p>
<p>It sounds like your notes are incredibly dense. Focus on making your notes exception-based.</p>
<p>By that I mean that there is no need to make a note of something you will automatically remember, or will encounter when reviewing the relevant chapter. Instead, look for the exceptions.</p>
<p>For example:
- If your prof explains a difficult concept far better than the book does, that explanation goes in your notes in detail, but if your prof explains it in exactly the same way, just put “Textbook p. 347” in your notes.
- If your prof says “I disagree with the book…” and starts describing how, those details go in your notes.
- If your prof references two different passages in the book and talks about connections between them, record the page references and focus on capturing what he is saying, not on capturing everything that is already in the book.</p>
<p>It sounds like your fundamental issue is that you don’t trust yourself to remember something unless you have rewritten it. Recopying can definitely be a beneficial tool, but it works best in moderation. Learn to trust yourself to remember most of the material, and focus on letting your notes be your aid in learning the things that are the most difficult, complex, or different from the readings.</p>
<p>If that sounds terrifying, there’s a way to do it with a safety net. I am a big fan of the iPad program Notability. It enables you to record typed, written, and drawn notes. It includes highlighting, and a search function. And best of all, it enables you to make audio recordings of lectures that are synchronized to your document. Tap on a specific point in your notes, and you can replay the lecture audio <em>at that moment in time</em>. I think they have an Android version as well.</p>
<p>That app, plus a bluetooth keyboard case for typing and a stylus for drawing figures, is my new gold standard for note-taking bliss. Just make sure you sit close enough to the speaker to capture good audio, and you will always have a way to refer back to what was said.</p>
<p>For my science and math classes, I generally just took notes on lecture and rarely took notes on the reading. My system would be that I’d pretty much write down whatever the professor said (often summarized or paraphrased, since it wasn’t worth it to write it down word or word), and then when I was studying I would condense it down into just the important stuff–sort of creating a study guide incorporating my notes from lecture and some of the reading for the test.</p>
<p>I’d recommend that you try not to make your notes so dense. That defeats the purpose of taking notes at all. You can still incorporate the reading and the professor’s lectures into your notes, but you don’t have to right every little thing down. Part of being a good student is figuring out what’s important and what isn’t. Try to write down the key points and terms, but you don’t need to write down every little detail. You can always go back to the textbook to read a certain section again if you need to go over it again, and you can always refer back to your lecture notes (or recordings, if you record lectures). You don’t need to copy everything down again, although you can if it really helps you to remember it.</p>