Content

• Steps
• Part 1 of 3: Prepare
• Part 2 of 3: Take the best notes you can
• Part 3 of 3: Reread your synopsis
• Tips
• Warnings
• What do you need

Whether you want to achieve academic success or reach the pinnacle of your career, taking notes effectively is a valuable skill for storing, remembering, playing back and retrieving information. If you follow the simple steps and tips below, you will learn not only to take notes, but also to write a summary that will help you apply your knowledge and save processed material.

Steps

Part 1 of 3: Prepare

1. 1 Prepare all the materials you need to take notes. It sounds simple enough, but for effective note-taking, it is really important that all the necessary supplies are prepared and put in place before a lesson, meeting or lecture.
   • If you use paper and pens, make sure you have a notebook with enough blank sheets of paper and two pens of each color. If you are using a laptop, check that it is fully charged or that you can sit down near a power outlet.
   • If you wear glasses, make sure you remember to take them. They will be needed if the teacher or lecturer decides to write some important information on the board. Have a microfiber cloth with you to clean your glasses if necessary. Also, be sure to take a place in the room where you can see and hear the speaker well.
2. 2 Come prepared. Be sure to review your notes from the previous time before going to class, lecture, or meeting. So you can easily and quickly pick up the further course of the lecture from the place where it ended.
   • If you have been advised to read something on the topic as preparation for the lesson, do not forget to do so, and also write annotations. This will help you understand topics, concepts, or ideas that your instructor is likely to talk about in class. It is a good idea to outline the chapter or article ahead of time. Do this on one side of the paper to supplement your notes during the session.
   • Remember the old adage: "Prepare for luck, prepare for failure."
3. 3 Be an active listener. When taking notes, many people make a mistake - they write down mechanically, mindlessly, without actually trying to figure out what is being said. Make an effort and understand topics during class, not after. Focus on the teacher's words, and if you don't understand anything, ask questions.
   • When the instructor finishes explaining the topic or pauses, raise your hand and ask the questions that interest you. He will probably appreciate that you listened to him carefully and want to understand what is not clear to you.
   • If you understand the topic you are studying during class, you will have to put in less effort at home.
4. 4 Take notes by hand. While note-taking on a laptop is more convenient, recent research has shown that handwriters retain information better. This is probably because laptop users simply translate what they hear into text, word for word, omitting the moment of processing what was said.
   • If you do take notes using a laptop, you shouldn't take it word for word. Try to understand what the teacher is saying.
   • Takeaway: You should take notes by hand whenever possible.
5. 5 Don't be afraid to ask questions. When you are faced with information that you do not understand, you should not tell yourself that you will solve this problem later, and after brief notes move on - ask the teacher or lecturer a clarifying question.
   • Judge for yourself: if you do not understand now, then it will be doubly incomprehensible to you when you yourself will revise the records later.
   • Don't be afraid to ask your teacher or lecturer to repeat, especially if you feel like he or she said something important.

Part 2 of 3: Take the best notes you can

1. 1 Focus on keywords and concepts.Most important The change you can make to improve your note-taking skills is to focus solely on writing down keywords and concepts.
   • Identify the most important information. Write down the individual words or key phrases that most reflect the topic of the lecture - dates, names, theories, definitions - only the most important details that define the essence. Eliminate all fills, bundles and minor details - if you need this information, you will read the tutorial.
   • Think about what you are want to save and remember. Why do you attend this lesson? Why did you come to this seminar? Why did your employer send you to this conference? While your first impulse may be to simply write down everything you see or hear word for word, you should remember that you are taking notes so that you can later learn the information with it, and not write a story.
   • First of all, pay attention to new information. Don't waste your time writing down what you already know: it's a waste of time. Concentrate on highlighting and writing down any new information that you do not already know - this is the main value of note-taking, and it is precisely it that will bring you the most benefit.
2. 2 Use the question, answer, proof method. This is a very effective method of taking notes, because it forces us to delve into the essence of the material in the process of taking notes and allows us to describe the topic in our own words. This technique of paraphrasing information has proven to be effective - with its help, students are much more effective in both understanding and remembering the material they have worked out.
   • Rather than mindlessly transferring line by line to paper, listen carefully to the speaker and try to understand the material. Once you've done this, write your notes in a series of questions based on the material, and then write down your own answers.
   • For example, with the question: "What is the central theme of Shakespeare's tragedy" Romeo and Juliet "?" - the answer might be: "More than just a tragic love story, Romeo and Juliet tells the story of the aftermath of a resentment."
   • Below this answer, you can provide evidence of your statement by linking to an example from the text. This strategy allows all key information to be recorded in a concise, easy-to-read format.
3. 3 Use shorthand. The average student writes down 1/3 words per second, while the average speaker speaks at 2/3 words per second. Developing your own shorthand system will help you record more efficiently and keep up.
   • Try writing "zn." instead of "means", "org-I" instead of "organization", "others." instead of "other" and so on. Use a plus sign instead of positive. You can use acronyms and acronyms for those words that are repeated many times during the lecture - for example, instead of writing "Mongol-Tatar yoke" 25 times in history class, you can write "mong-tat. yoke". Try to write a synopsis with only consonants: "n zvtr nzhn sdlt dmshn zdn".
   • Of course, the most important thing is that you can then decipher your notes.If you think you might be having trouble with this, try leaving notes with key abbreviations. In addition, you can return to your notes after class and write in the full form of the abbreviations.
   • If the lecturer still speaks faster than you can transcribe, and the transcript does not help, you can bring a recording device to class so you can listen to the lecture a second time and fill in the blanks in your notes.
4. 4 Take notes in a way that makes it look appealing. You don't want to go back to material and sort through your notes if the synopsis is messy, disorganized, and hard to read. Accordingly, it is very important that everything is beautiful! Here are some tips to help you make your notes look attractive:
   • Always start on a new page. It will be easier for you to read if each topic or lesson starts with a blank page. Date in the upper right corner and write on only one side of the paper, especially if you are writing with a bold pen that shows through the paper.
   • Be sure to write legibly. Taking notes will be a waste of time if you can't figure it out later! It doesn't matter how fast you write: make sure your handwriting is small, neat and readable, and that the lines do not overlap.
   • Use wide margins. On the outside of each page, draw wide margins with a pen and ruler. With them, the synopsis will not seem overwhelmed, and you will have the opportunity to take notes for later when you re-read.
   • Use symbols and diagrams. Things like arrows, frames, charts, tables, graphs and other visual aids are often great helpers in understanding connections and remembering key concepts, especially if you are better at comprehending information visually.
5. 5 Use color-coded notes in your notes. Many people find that information is better read and remembered by using different colors when taking notes.
   • This is because color stimulates the creative areas of the brain, making notes more interesting and therefore easier to remember and store. Color coding helps associate color with information, allowing you to memorize the outline with relatively little effort.
   • Try using colored pens for different parts of your outline. For example, you can write questions in red, definitions in blue, and conclusions in green.
   • You can also use a bullet to highlight keywords, dates, and definitions. However, do not overdo it - you should not replace real learning with coloring the outline.
6. 6 Take an outline of the textbook. After the lecture, you can supplement your notes with information from the textbook. Textbook outline is another skill worth learning.
   • Material preview: before you start directly reading the text, review the material to understand what it is about. Read the introduction and conclusion, headings, subheadings, first and last sentences of each paragraph. See also diagrams, illustrations, and diagrams.
   • Active text reading: now go back to the beginning and carefully read the entire text from the first to the last word. After each paragraph, highlight keywords, facts, concepts, and quotes. Use visual cues in the tutorial itself - places in bold or italic, color, or a list are usually key.
   • Designing: after you have carefully read the text, go back to the beginning and outline all the information you have highlighted. Try not to rewrite entire sentences (this is a waste of time), but to rephrase them in your own words where possible.

Part 3 of 3: Reread your synopsis

1. 1 Review your notes later in the day. If you review the notes made after the lecture or a little later on the same day, the information will be postponed and will be remembered much better. There is no need to spend a lot of time and energy on this - 15–20 minutes every evening will be enough.
   • Fill the gaps. Use revisit to add additional information that you recalled from the lesson or lecture.
   • Write a summary. Another effective tool for getting the information from the synopsis into your memory is to summarize the summary at the bottom of the page.
2. 2 Check yourself. Check how you have mastered the material: close the synopsis and try to explain the topic to yourself (aloud or silently).
   • See how many important details you can remember. After that, read your notes again and summarize the information you missed.
   • Explain the material to a friend. Explaining material to a friend is a great way to check if you fully understand the topic and whether your outline covers it comprehensively.
3. 3 Memorize your notes. You will really appreciate the benefits of good notes when the exam time comes and you need to memorize all the material. If you followed the advice and reviewed your notes for 20-30 minutes each evening, you will find that the information is much easier to memorize. Here are some popular memorization techniques you can try:
   • Line by line: if you need to memorize a piece of text, here's a good technique. You read the first line several times and then try to repeat it out loud without looking at the textbook. Then read the second line, again several times, and try to repeat it without looking at the book. Continue in this way until you can repeat the entire passage of text without the help of a textbook.
   • Making up a story: this technique is to turn the information you need to remember into a simple memorable story. For example, if you want to memorize the first three elements of Mendeleev's periodic table (hydrogen, helium, lithium), then you can use the following story: "(Vo) lya - (he) nium in (ly) terature." The story doesn't have to make sense - in fact, the more dumb the better.
   • Mnemonic techniques: using mnemonic techniques is a great way to memorize words in a specific order. To make a mnemonic, simply take the first letter of each word you want to remember and make a short sentence out of those letters. For example, if you want to memorize the EGBDF musical chord progression, you can use the following mnemonic: "The European Dove Will Be a Good Pheasant."
   • More information on effective and popular mnemonics can be found in this article.

Tips

• Try to use short phrases and lists: remember that this is a synopsis, not an essay.
• When writing your notes, do not forget to underline keywords that may be included in the test.
• If the lecturer (or other presenter) repeats something more than two times, it is most likely something important and you should pay special attention to what was said.
• If your school permits this, you can use different bright markers to highlight. Highlighted material will catch your eye and grab your attention.
• Be attentive to what the teacher says; do not be distracted by other people around.
• Write down the most important things you need to know.
• Don't forget to have a separate notebook for each subject, and don't forget to sign the notebook.
• You don't have to write down every word you hear.
• Record information by paraphrasing it - this helps to better convey what you hear to consciousness.
• If you are reading a book for a literature lesson, always keep a stack of note paper close at hand - you are unlikely to be allowed to write in the book itself.

Warnings

• If you decide to record on a dictaphone, ask your teacher for permission to do so.
• Don't be distracted by those who are not speaking at the moment.
• Prepare a separate sheet or sticky notes for footnotes and (if you like) put down the serial numbers of your notes on both sheets - so it will be clear to you which statement refers to what.

What do you need

• At least two pens or two pencils
• Eraser (if your pencil doesn't have one on top)
• Glasses or other means
• Lots of paper
• Highlighter markers (at least two colors)
• At least one pack of colored notes (stickers)
• Folder or binder for keeping your notes organized (if you are not keeping them in a notebook)