Take notes in Class with more purpose!

Take notes in class with a purpose

Everyone talks about highlighting your notes or summarizing and trying to only write down what is the most important information. The problem is trying to figure out why it is important and how you will use it?

Listen to the Teacher:

Listen when taking notes in class and often the teacher will give clues to the test and assist you in figuring out what is most important. Sometimes they may be more than clues and exactly what you need, but it is up to you to turn that into a thorough and well formatted note.

Use your technology to make your life easier:

If you take notes on an iPad or Laptop then it is important to take the time to format it and improve it after and note just file it away. You can easily highlight and condense later and cut and paste to make yourself (or your study group) a practice test. Try the App Quizlet for a simple practice test as well.

Make Predictions:

When taking notes think about the purpose of the information being presented to you. If your unit culminating activity will require this information then you have to individualize it. For example, if the unit test if going to have an essay question that will be based on notes from class then you need to format your note to help you remember it, not your teacher.

So let’s say you are in History class and the theme is Women’s contributions to World War II. The notes contain a lot of facts about the number of women that went overseas and places and dates, but you are not one that will remember number based details. First, what will the question look like and do you really need those details?

Based on what you have done in class you predict that the essay question will be a basic question along the lines of: How did the roles of women in WWII advance the status of Women in North America?

Now you have a guide to follow when you summarize or highlight. Now you can forget the statistical figures that you won’t remember and focus on summarizing your notes based on the facts that best support YOUR answer to the essay question. So now your note should focus on 3 to 5 major contributions made by women that stand out as important to you and you can easily study from it and transfer the information to your essay.