Are you highlighting entire paragraphs in your textbook?
Most university students can take notes, but the art of effective note-taking can take years to perfect.
It wasn’t until halfway through my doctorate that the shear volume I had to read made my old note-taking habits obsolete.
I always thought that if it’s in the book, if it’s assigned reading, then I have to know every single word, fact, figure, and reference. Enter the practice of highlighting entire paragraphs, typing them up later, and reading them over half a dozen times.
For a long while, I thought this was the best way to do well in school because it had worked. While this style of note-taking might get you through an undergrad degree, and maybe even grad school, it’s not actually the best way to learn well in school.
Most people don’t have photographic memories; there’s only so much that can be remembered. What’s more is that, if you’re like me, when you passively read and memorize things for a test you’re going to forget them almost as soon as that test is done. Active note-taking, on the other hand, forces you to engage with what you’re reading or what you’re listening to.
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The next time you do a reading or finish taking notes during a lecture ask yourself five questions:
- What was the author or lecturer’s main point?
- Why does this information matter to me or to others?
- What other ideas in the course or in my life does this connect to?
- What are the important terms that I don’t understand that I should learn?
- What are my own, original ideas and responses to this reading or lecture?
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These questions will help you hone in on what’s important, to make deeper connections with the material, and (perhaps most importantly) develop your own ideas. I also recommend condensing this information so that it fits on a large cue card; one cue card per lecture or per reading is manageable and will come in handy during midterms, exams, and beyond. Of course, this isn’t the only way to take effective notes, but I have found it helpful to my own learning. The most important thing is to not become complacent with your learning experience during university. You pay a lot of money and dedicate a lot of your time to your education, you owe it to yourself to keep trying different learning strategies until you find the one that allows you to meet your full potential.
Photo courtesy of Alora Griffiths/The Ontarion.