Education Articles from College Matching Service

College life is often viewed as a critical turning point in the lives of students. Students across the world look forward to this time in their lives with a lot of excitement coupled with apprehension. Though the life of the students in one country may be in stark contrast to those in another country, there is one aspect that is common to students in all countries and at all times. Here is raised the indispensable issue of note-taking.

For most students, taking down lecture notes is an uninteresting activity; something to be avoided at all costs. However, class notes are indispensable when preparing for exams. Diligent class notes are a great help for distilling key concepts and in last-minute reviews before the exams. They help build the mind for reflection as well. Therefore it becomes necessary to acquire the art of taking down effective notes. Some key points that will help you take good notes are:

1. Record the date, topic/ title and the speaker’s name. Also number your pages

2. Sit in a place from where you can see and hear the speaker clearly. Avoid noisy partners and distractions

3. As an introduction, provide general information about the topic in discussion. State the speaker’s purpose

4. Mark important ideas, terms, concepts and critical information. Underline them or highlight them using asterisk or boxes

5. Write down anything written on the board by the speaker. These are obviously significant ideas, ones that are emphasized and bound to be repeated. Make a note of new words and ideas

6. When the speaker alludes to the text, make a mention of the page numbers in your notes

7. If you are unable to keep up with the speaker, jot down key words and phrases. Leave space for the information that you have missed. You can always check later with the speaker or your classmates to help fill in the gaps

8. Build an attitude of participation. Listen attentively and take careful notes. Keep a record of your ideas relating to the topic in discussion and also make of note of any queries. Ask questions and get your doubts clarified. The speaker will always be ready to help you out

To make effective use of the notes, students must review the notes regularly, read them aloud repeating the key concepts and reflect. These combined will help connect class ideas to the notes and other readings and aid the learning process.

Whether you are attending a regular college or pursuing distant learning courses, making a lot of notes is essential. However the traditional note making method has certain pitfalls. Being a linear method it does not involve your brain in processing the collected information.  

Thereby, you need to develop a way that will actively engage your brain in organizing the materials. This will also help you to improve your understanding ability and you can recall the information conveniently.  

Mind Mapping: An effective method 

It is wonderful pictorial way of organizing the main points from your lecture notes and text books. Write down the important factors and include all your notes on a single screen. Interconnect the ideas to highlight their relationships. Apart from enhancing your understanding and recalling ability, this process also helps in developing your memory’s storing and aesthetic sense.   

The following are some tips to enable you to make notes efficiently with Mind Mapping: 

• Create your Mind Map branches with the help of the topic headings and sub headings of your text books.
• Use a central image and place the subject matter of the lesson in that image.
• Add as much details as possible and highlight the important points with colors.
• As you progress with the text book start building your mind map. Add all the striking points in the proper place.
• Once you have finished reading create a Mind Map that summarizes the whole chapter or notes.
• In order to keep with Mind Mapping principles use single key words for labeling the key topic as well as the sub topics. 

You need to be brief for creating effective Mind Maps. However, you can use all-inclusive notes in the early stage of your study. You can also use the Mind Mapping software to add notes to your branches. The Mind Mapping software further enable you to hyperlink the branches with some external files.