<p>Hi. I seem to be spending the majority of my study hours taking notes from the text. And I feel it's a waste of time and inefficient because I don't retain anything while taking notes- it's after I take them as I review my notes, that I learn the material. Is this normal or am I seriously wasting time? maybe I should just read through the text/chapters and take skimpy notes?</p>
<p>many people do the same thing and you say that you are learning it so i wouldnt say that you are wasting your time</p>
<p>Try to just take down very interesting points and important ones THAT YOU DON’T KNOW ALREADY.</p>
<p>Outlining is usually a tedius, but often very useful method of retaining large quantities of information. If you want to cut back on the time, try typing your notes instead of writing them. It’s a much neater method and easier to organize and manipulate data.</p>
<p>If you haven’t already, you may also want to try different methods of studying the chapter. Some methods work differently for some people. For example, I hate outlining with a passion and it does little for me. What I usually do is just read through the whole chapter thoroughly once, and then go back and review important sections or questions that are stressed. You may also want to try breaking the material down into smaller sections and using a variety of methods (outlining/listing key points/vocab/mnemonics) to absorb the info.</p>
<p>personally, I think if textbooks just gave outlines instead of paragraphs, I’d learn the same thing and cut back on hours of outlining</p>
<p>And what I meant by wasting time was that the process of outlining didn’t teach me anything- I mean that I can’t outline and understand the material at the same time. Only after hours of outlining, I look back into my outlines/text book and understand the concept.</p>
<p>however, I am glad that I am not the only one doing this. I have friends that are geniuses and obviously dont seem to try as hard as I do</p>
<p>ahhh, I think outlines are useless…wasting so much time worrying INDENTS. I usually take notes on the computer as I read along…usually, the acting of just typing it makes me remember arcane facts. I’ve only read over notes for school tests, never standardized</p>
<p>Depending on the material, I can outline and understand at the same time. However, sometimes I find myself just outlining and only vaguely understanding. When that happens, I usually just read instead. I read and reread until I understand what’s going on. If the textbook isn’t doing the job, then I go to other sources. In any case, once I understand everything, I then go back to outlining, and that helps me remember the information.</p>
<p>I actually find the material much easier to grasp once I’ve outlined it. This is partially because I’ll have written concepts down in my own words but also because I’ll probably have read and reread sections of the text several times.</p>
<p>This is time-consuming, though, but I find that it’s well worth it when it comes to test-taking time. The trick is to keep up with your outlining.</p>
<p>I had the same problem but my solution might not apply to you.
My problem class was for history and we get to keep our history books so I would highlight in the book what I thought was important and then write notes in the margins.
That forced me to keep it short and then I would remember what I had written the next day in class. Plus writing by hand sears it into your memory more than typing because you aren’t just pressing buttons, your whole hand is moving to form the letters.
So maybe if you can’t write in the book, take SHORT notes on paper or on post-its stuck inside the book.</p>