Even though modern world has a lot of possibilities for making electronic notes on laptops or tablets, the need of the written notes still stays the most comfortable way for the most of students. The thing is, that you are not only writing text, but add the signs, underlines and footnotes, and this is easier to do with the help of a pen and a notepad. The information given by your professor during the course is priceless, so you should take care about having clear and readable notes. Those notes will be of a great help while passing an exam on this course. Here are a few hints on writing the most helpful and effective notes!
Tips on Getting the Helpful Lecture Notes
Here is the selection of the common pieces of advice. Obviously, every student has his/her own rules of making notes, and those rules have been tested in practice. Well, 4 years are quite enough for a student to get adjusted to the learning process.
- Write Down as Much as Possible
You should better write down as much as you can, because mostly every word of professor may be useful for you. If you have time, you should also include your personal thoughts or examples to what you have heard.
- Make Your Notes Clear
Writing down the maximum information and with the limitation of time may result in unclear text. There will be no use of such notes. Therefore, develop your own system of signs and shortenings. If the word is long, you may write first 2-3 letters, then dash and the last 2-3 letters. If a certain word is a frequently used term, you may write one capital letter and a dot after instead of the repetition of the same word.
- Leave Some Space on the Side
It will be a good idea to leave some space blank on the side of your lecture notes.There you can include some exclamation marks, key words etc. which will help you to navigate among the notes.
- Be Accurate
Make sure that you are writing down the correct information and you have not misheard anything. Also, do your best to avoid crossing outs, as they may be confusing.
- Get Different Notebooks for Different Classes
Having a separate notebook for each class you will never feel confused and lost among the terms and information. Furthermore, you will spend less time for the required information search and the odd details won’t distract you.
- Highlight and Underline the Key Words/Phrases
Get some fibre-tip pens to highlight, cross over or underline the more important parts of your lecture notes. This should better be done in process of writing the notes, so you will recollect the information better later.
- Add Points and Sub Points
We bet your professor’s information delivery is structured. That is why you should define, what is main and what is less important, reflecting this in your notes. There should be some headings, sub topics etc.
- Develop Your Own Style
It often happens, that only the person, who has written the notes, can read them. This means that the student has developed his own effective style of making notes, and he is able to write down a lot of information within the short time and clearly. Develop your own style of making notes, but do not forget about the principles above.
