How to Take Good Note in Class
Taking good notes in class can not only enhance your study performance but also increase your academic points.
That’s why to take good notes is vital as a student because there are times whereby you write down some things in your note, studied it and understood it well but as exams approaches,
you get back to your note after some time and still you find it difficult to even understand what you wrote.
This usually happens due to the way you take note.
In this article I will be sharing some insights on how to take good notes as a student so stick with me.
Note taking is of two type which you can termed as un-isolated and isolated note taking.
The un-isolated note taking is the note that one takes while in the classroom from a teacher while the isolated note taking is the note that one takes while reading or studying text or a book alone.
In both case there are two types of note books you need
- Junk note
- Master note
The junk note is often a rough note that you will use to write or jot stuffs down while the teacher or lecturer is dictating or explaining some concepts.
The junk note is here to make life easier as you won’t bother missing any important information.
The master note is your main note that you will form from the junk note and what you understand about the things you jot down.
This note will be what you use to read for exams and it will contain more information that it structured to help make you assimilate things fast and pass your school test or exam.
How to take junk notes?
There is no best format in taking junk note as it often has to be rough but here are some points
Don’t write every word down - take note of important information, write some down and keep some in your brain.
Use shapes to circle out or group important information
Use shorthand while taking junk note e.g. characteristics can be shortened as xtics or with can be shortened as w/ or the to be d or between for btw or to for 2 – Just devise yours but never get used to this to the extent that you write this way in the exam or in the master note.
How to take master notes?
To take a good master note, here are some point in no specific order that might help out
Use contrasting sketch to make things clear like bullet points, star dashes etc. but I mostly like to use cloud shape sketch.
Form the notes in accordance to the past questions- - the aim of most students in taking good note or better note is to be able to pass their exams, so having a section in your master note where you go and answer the previous exams question will make it easier to format the main points.
While writing a master note put some more points to help you out i.e. write some tags or short note and then circle it and link it to another point. For instance, the first time you study something it might not stick with you at that time but after you keep striving you tend to get the heck of it.
The thing that help you get the point easily is one of the example of the kind of points you need to write down so that even if you forget how you previously understood the concepts then you can use that as an aid to help bring back the idea.
