5 Note-Taking Tips

Along with textbooks being provided to you free of charge, GONE are the days of your teachers giving you class notes to copy.  YOU, dear friend, are now responsible for writing down notes from spoken lectures in your classes. Do you have good note-taking skills? Let me give you a few tips on how to efficiently write notes in college:

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1.) If your professor repeats a phrase, or says it rather slowly or louder than usual (to ensure you write each word down), then write it down and highlight it! I've found that professors do this when students commonly miss questions on an exam relating to what they are saying.  *Note: Do not only write down these obvious hints from your professor! They alone will NOT get you by. You must actively pay attention and take notes throughout your classes.

2.) Always define terms (vocabulary) in  your notes. It is also a good idea to highlight defined terms in the same color highlighter that way you can easily spot them.

3.) Read the textbook section BEFORE coming to class (it will be stated in your syllabus)! If you have read the text assigned for that day, then you can more efficiently take notes by knowing what material will be covered, and how specific you should be when noting certain topics. Also, use chapter summaries to make sure you covered all the major learning objectives! For instance, in chemistry if you didn't read the text and your professor is explaining an example of how something works, more often than not you will hastily write down their elaborate explanation rather than the concise material via the text.

4.) Outline! Are you familiar with outlining? Check this out if you aren't: http://thatcollegekid.com/how-to-create-a-successful-outline/   Note!: Usually it is difficult to write a fluent, mistake-free outline while taking notes during lecture. The best outlines are made while you are studying with all the notes you took during class-time... that way you can organize your textbook notes, lecture notes, and examples in a clean and orderly fashion (and so they're all in one place for easy use when exam study-time comes around!)

5.) Abbreviate! This is a super helpful tip, just be sure to be consistent in your abbreviations. For instance, I use "b/c" for "because"... I use "para" (spanish, haha) for "in order to"... and in chemistry I use element symbols instead of writing out the whole word. Large annoying phrases like "significant figures" can be shortened to "sig figs," and "aggregate expenditure" can be "AE."