Master the Art of Note-taking: Tips and Techniques
You’ve been told to take notes while you study — — be it during a class or during self-study. But how do you do it? This article will give you an overview of my experience and a few well-known techniques people use frequently.
Now that I’m a student again and I’ve been trying my hand at writing blogs, I figured this would be the right time to merge these two situations.
First things first: Let’s clear the Misunderstanding
Many people try to transcribe the entire lecture in the name of taking notes or copying all the text from a book thinking everything is important. If you do either of these, you might be doing this entire notes thing wrong.
Yes, all of the content in the book is relevant and important, and so is most of the lecture. But, note-taking isn’t about gathering and documenting all of the content.
Your notes should be about the context of the topic rather than the content. Notes are the gateways that direct you towards the relevant content efficiently.
Now that we’ve cleared this up, let’s see how we can take better notes efficiently.
So, what should I do?
Okay, let’s start discussing some ways to take better and more efficient ways to take notes while studying.
Before you even start taking notes, you need to make sure that you’re completely attentive in class or while reading your books. If not, you’re bound to miss out on all the important information and the context behind the concepts.
Your notes are for YOU!
Please read that line again, maybe 5 more times, I’ll wait. Done? Good. We take notes thinking we need to make them detailed so that we can read them without referring to any other source and that’s a big mistake many people make. (yes, I was one of those.)
Try to keep your notes as short as you possibly can, as long as you understand those. You can use abbreviations to shorten big words or even sentences or even common concepts. You can also rely on visual elements like diagrams and figures. Another factor often overlooked is taking notes in a language you feel comfortable in. Your notes don’t necessarily have to be in one particular language, mix and match in a way that’s more comfortable for you.
I usually stick to English as my language but I include some diagrams and figures to help me illustrate a concept rather than taking it down in words. It not only saves me time but makes it easier to remember.
Determine your preferred method
Going old-school, using a book and a pen might be more comfortable for you or adopting new-age technology like typing or sketching on tablets might be your preferred way of taking notes, you need to determine the note-taking method you feel comfortable with. This lays the foundation for you to take notes efficiently.
There’s no right or wrong answer to this, you can use, a book, computer or something else if you’re comfortable with that. Though, if you use something other than a book or computer(laptop, mobile, tablet, etc) to take notes, I’d like to know more about it. Someone might say photographic memory or memory palace for the LOLz.
I prefer a combination of both physical and digital methods, I’ll share why and how I do it in a later section.
Add details and organize
As I’ve said, note-taking is about context, so we need to add details about the source material to help us refer back to it efficiently. This could be details like the page number for the relevant topic in a book or even the date, lecturer name and other contextual information about the event to help you refresh your memory as efficiently as possible.
It would be preferable to use different notebooks for every subject, but it’s okay to use a single book as well. Most of us, if not all, take notes in chronological order, and it’s better to keep it that way, don’t jump pages randomly. Even in a digital format, you can add tags to your notes to keep them organized and find them easily.
Now, there’s no one-for-all organization technique (yes, that was a My Hero Academia reference) so feel free to experiment and find an organization technique you are most efficient with.
I personally use a single notebook that has all the subjects mixed up in chronological order, so the date is an important factor for me in organizing notes, under which comes the subject, then the topic, so I take care to note these details down every time I take notes in a book. In the digital version, all the subjects are separated so the important details here are the subjects, the chapters in each subject and then the topics under each chapter. Although the date isn’t that important here, I add it so that it’s easier for me to refer back to my physical notes. If you’re referring to a book, it is critical to add a page number to help you find the source material extremely quickly.
Start before the class
Taking notes in a class is more difficult than taking notes from a book as you cannot determine the pace of information. So, if the resources are available to you, going through the material before the class gives you an idea about what to expect and you’ll have some context to what your lecturer is saying. This will help you avoid transcribing the lecture and clear any doubts you might have right then and there.
You don’t have to study the section thoroughly, it’s good as long as you skim through the book, have some idea about the concept and highlight the keywords or note down some questions.
Words, not sentences
As we’ve already discussed, you don’t have to transcribe the entire book or lecture and your notes are for you. We can either use shorthand to write the sentences in as few words as we can, don’t worry about grammar in your notes, the goal is to document all the important information and skip out the normal words.
Another efficient way is to note all the keywords for every topic. Each and every topic in a book or a lecture has a certain concept it revolves around. Noting down the keywords can remind you of the concept without going through the entire section.
Whenever you’re noting down the keywords, keep some space around the keywords to note down some contextual information about the keyword. You can use this space to add an illustration, a reference to another topic, some more information your lecturer might share, or something you find in your research about the concept.
Sticky notes; a good way to use them
Sticky notes come in different sizes and colours, though I’ve never really used sticky notes. I never understood how people use them. Many times, I’ve seen people use them to note down some tasks or improv notes. Well, I did more research and found some ways I can see myself using those which might be helpful for others reading this article.
There are various ways people stick the notes, some do it right on the relevant section and some do it on the edges of the page.
You can use the tiny wide ones to note down any keywords or formulae in the relevant section. You can then use the standard square ones for longer content. You can either take short one-liner notes that are important or write down any doubts you have on the topic.
Re-read, re-write, edit
Taking notes isn’t a one-time thing, just like writing a blog article, a book or any other content, it needs revisions, so don’t just write and forget about your notes. The notes we take during a lecture or when reading through a book are rough.
Once you’re done with the lecture or book and taking your initial notes, you can go back and make a better version of your notes. Your notes are never done, you can always add some more critical information that might help you understand the concepts better.
Taking proper and structured notes during a lecture is a considerably difficult task as you don’t have all the content, some relevant information might pop up later during the lecture or in a later section in the book, so squeeze in the information in your notes in some corner and you can give it a proper section in your re-written notes.
Although it might seem inefficient as you’re doing double the work, it helps you retain information, think of more doubts while the information is still fresh and gives you an opportunity to structure your notes properly.
What I do is take notes during a lecture in a book as it’s faster and then re-type my notes digitally so that I have access to it anywhere and anytime. It also gives me the versatility to type, add pictures, links to other sources, etc.
Compare your notes with others
Comparing notes in this context isn’t in a competitive sense, but rather in a collaborative sense. Comparing notes among your class can give you more insights about the concepts, someone else might’ve found an efficient way to note something or add some critical information you may have missed.
Everyone says, “two minds are better than one.” But you don’t have to compare your notes with each and every person, just with a select few that you know can add value.
That’s all folks, kinda.
Yep, these are “tips” I’ve researched, realized and tried out myself. These might not be the best ones out there, but it’s something that works for me. Now, I’ll share some established note-taking techniques and some tools you can use.
Summary of some well-known note-taking methods
In this section. we’ll discuss some of the well-known and established note-taking methods. Although I don’t use them personally, I’ve read about them and these might be helpful to someone.
The Cornell Method
The Cornell method of note-taking was created by Walter Pauk, a professor at Cornell, in the 1950s. Here’s how to do it:
- Divide your page into 3 sections (as shown in the figure): Notes, Cues and Summary.
- In the notes section, you write short concise sentences. Make sure you leave some lines between items so that you can add more information later.
- Review your notes right away and include keywords and questions in the Cues section. Make sure you align the relevant items in notes and cues for easier understanding.
The Mind Mapping Method
The Mind Mapping method provides a graphical representation of information, ideas, facts and concepts. Here’s how you use it:
- Write the main topic/concept in the centre.
- Branch out into more specific concepts under that concept and link it back to the main topic(s).
- Repeat step 2 to create more dense layers until all the concepts and ideas are visualised.
This method maximises active participation as it requires you to organize information in a hierarchical manner. Initial versions of this method can be traced back to Leonardo Da Vinci, however, the modern version is popularized by Tony Buzan — an English Author and Educational Consultant. This method is suitable for subjects where the content is well-organized, and detailed and targets specific concepts. This can also be used to explore new domains and get a complete overview of the topics involved.
The Outlining Method
Similar to the Cornell method, the outlining method has been around for decades. Although not revolutionary, it has proven to be more optimised than conventional methods. Here’s how you use this method:
We follow a hierarchy in the content with the high-level content on the left-most side and indenting content as we go deeper. Eg. main topics are recorded on the left-most side, and subtopics are added with an indent. Any supporting ideas are added with another indent. All further details are added with more indentation.
This method is well-rounded and suitable for most subjects except for STEM. It requires you to identify a clear information structure to the information. This method is effective and backed by science and is easy to implement both in physical and digital formats.
Some Other Methods
Apart from these two methods, there are a lot of other note-taking methods you can use, here are some:
- Charting Method
- Sentence Method
- Two Column Method
- Visual Method
No method is objectively better than the others. You need to select a method most suitable for you and the subject you’re studying. These methods just give you a framework for taking notes and you don’t necessarily have to use either one. You can make changes to any of these or just make a custom system that works best for you.
