Better marks in exams start with better notes. Notes are an important part of academic life and almost every smart student I know takes notes in class and also makes his own notes, in some form or the other. Remember that imperfect notes are better than a strong memory as you cannot remember everything that is taught. Notes are a great tool to help you focus your mental energy on what you are studying and at the same time understand what you are studying. Effective notes will even lead to less stress when exam time comes around! Research shows two things that help you learn better –
a) Organizing your thoughts helps you learn better.
b) Anything that directs your mental energy toward understanding what you are studying helps you learn better.
Note-taking: Note-taking is the practice of recording information captured from another source like a class lecture. While taking notes, students record the main points from the information being taught, freeing their mind from having to recall everything later. Note-taking is a critical skill that can improve academic performance, reduce study time, help you to understand and remember information and thereby ease the process of getting better marks in your exams. Here are a few tips on taking effective notes in class –
a) Improve your listening skills so that you are able to identify and note down the important points. Pay close attention to what is being said and the notes you are taking. If any point is repeated by the teacher then make sure that it goes down in your notes as this point is important for the exam.
b) The whole point of taking notes while in class is that you should be able to use them later to study. Hence, your study notes should be clear, concise, and well-organized.
The only small limitation of taking notes in class is that you are noting down points from a single source whereas when you make your own notes, you can refer to multiple sources.
Note-making: Note-making is the practise of creating your own notes in your own words, from what you studied earlier. Immediately after reading a topic, smart students extract all the main points that stood out and write them in their own words. The first time that you study the notes that you prepared, go back to your textbook and look for important stuff that you may have missed, and add it to your notes. The advantage of making your own notes is that you are also improving your study skills, you are able to organise your thoughts and understand what you are studying. You are able to see each point clearly and make connections with each other and also that while making your own notes, you can use multiple sources of information. One tip when making your own notes is to give your own spin to it. i.e. Rephrase the material on your own without losing the main essence of what you’ve studied.
There are several scientific methods for writing effective notes. However, many students are not certain about how to write effective notes or which style will work best for them. So, here is one scientific and organised way to take notes in class and to even create your own notes from multiple sources and it’s called the Cornell method. Follow these simple steps to use the Cornell method while writing notes.
a) Take a blank sheet of paper on which you are going to write your notes. Divide the paper into three sections. First, fold the paper up approximately two inches from the bottom. Then, fold the left side over approximately three inches.
b) When you unfold your paper, you will see three sections.
c) Make use of the spacious right-hand portion to take notes and record all the detailed information here. On the left-hand side, list the main topics or essential points.
d) Once you have finished taking notes, utilize the bottom section of your paper to create a brief summary of what you have learned.
The advantage of using the Cornell method when writing notes is that by summarizing at the end of your notes, you force yourself to reflect on what you studied in its entirety. Once it is time to study or prepare for an exam, both the summary and the left-hand column can assist you. This method is also effective because the main points, details and summary are all written in one place.
There are multiple other scientific note writing methods like the mapping method and the outlining method, but I find the Cornell method to be most effective.
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