<p>I'm going back to school in the Spring, and I've always had some trouble with taking notes, particularly from textbooks. So, I'm wondering what works best for you guys.</p>
<p>How do you organize your notes (for example, color coding/using different colored inks, mind mapping, using different colored highlighters, etc)?
When taking notes from your textbook, how do you avoid writing down too much while still getting all the important stuff?</p>
<p>I'd appreciate any other tips too, for taking lecture notes or studying or anything really :) Thanks!</p>
<p>I have difficulty with reading because I forget what I am reading as I am reading it if it gets too dense, so I get pastel colored sticky notes and summarize sections as I read them and literally just stick them over that section. And then when I finish the reading assignment I type out all the stuff I wrote on the sticky notes.</p>
<p>For articles and such I will often just highlight them and make extra notes or add my own thoughts in the margins, and then just hole punch them all and keep them in a binder for each class. Were I not so anal about writing in books I’d probably do that in my textbooks too, but I prefer the sticky note method. I think highlighting works best for me for quick reads and sticky notes for tougher ones. </p>
<p>As for getting the important stuff, I think a lot of that just takes practice and what specifically is important depends on the subject and the class. I am taking a lot of poli sci classes, so important dates, ideas, and events are most of what my notes are-- with some vocabulary thrown in. In my geology class almost all my notes are vocabulary. What you need to take notes on also depends on what you need help remembering. In science I don’t need anything but vocabulary but a lot of people need more than that. You’ll just have to experiment and see what works for you.</p>
<p>In lecture it really depends on the professors lecture style. I bring my laptop to class and furiously type away in whatever way I can manage, they go too fast to pay much attention to organization-- I go over them after class when I’ve gotten too scattered to put them back into some kind of sensible order. </p>
<p>And as for studying, that also depends on the person. I spend a few minutes skimming through my notes every day and again before and after class. If you learn something properly the first time you do it (ie actually READ your reading assignments and take notes, don’t just skim) you usually don’t have to put too much time or work into reviewing it because you’ve already done the legwork, you just need to refresh your memory. Again, you’ll just have to try some different things and see what works for you.</p>
<p>in class i just listen to the teacher and concentrate on what is assigned… never took notes in my life lol (im sure some of you need to take notes to remember anything though…)</p>
<p>when I’m assigned reading I’ll read it and just highlight anything I think is relevant to the class/topic.</p>
<p>I spend around 1-3 hours a day studying outside of class and so far am getting A’s and B’s.</p>
<p>Pretty sure everyone has a different style of learning though…</p>
<p>I take notes using a dash and bullet method - for example, in my Middle Eastern Civ class my notes would look something like this:</p>
<p>-Islam <strong><em>*Began in Arabian Peninsula
_</em></strong><em>*Started by Muhammad
_</em><strong><em>-Born in Mecca </em></strong><strong><em>-Married to Khadija
_</em></strong><strong><em>*Rich Meccan Widow
_</em></strong>_<strong><em>*No Children by Khadija </em></strong>*Millions of Muslims around the world today</p>
<p>(Sorry for the lines - just pretend they’re empty spaces - the computer won’t let me put the spaces in.)</p>
<p>So you see I just alternate the dashes and bullets every other level. Also, I write the important terms in the margin of my notebook next to the place where they are discussed so I can find them easily. And then for studying I pretty much just review my notes and make sure I know all the terms I wrote in the margins. Hope that gives you some more ideas!</p>
<p>get the book “What Smart Students Know”. Written by the co-founder of the Princeton Review SAT prep courses, it explains how you use the textbooks and take notes in class for a variety of material. The steps you take reading a history book are different from those reading a book for a lit class or a math book; this guide covers them all.</p>