Notes Taking

“Good learning at home begins with good notes taken in class”

Tolu Alao

Just as everyone has a different learning style, different teachers have different teaching styles (and often these clashes with the students' learning styles!).

Some teachers lecture, some lead discussions, some "facilitate" individual work (as in a lab), etc. 



Consequently, different classroom settings will require different note-taking techniques. But the suggestions here are general enough to work in most situations. 

The key idea of taking good notes in class is to write down as much as possible. There are several reasons to take notes that are as complete as possible:

1.      It will force you to pay attention to what's going on in class.

2.      It will keep you awake!

3.      There will be less that you'll have to remember.

Should you concentrate on taking notes or should you concentrate on understanding what you are learning? 

Paradoxically, I'd err on the side of taking notes, not understanding! Understanding can come later, when you review your notes. 

But if you have incomplete notes, it will be hard for you to learn what you didn't take notes on. But wait a minute! 

If you’ll have access to the notes from the lecturer later on, then understanding should come first. But nevertheless stay sensitive to things said in-between the lines.

Taking complete notes will require you to write fairly quickly and, as a consequence, to use abbreviations. If you send text messages on your cell phone, then you know the sort of abbreviations I'm talking about. Use them when you take notes in class!

Stay tuned!