Taking Lecture Notes
Making yourself take notes forces you to listen carefully and test your understanding of the material.
When you are reviewing, notes provide a gauge as to what is important in the text.
Personal notes are usually easier to remember than text.
Writing down important points helps you to remember them even before you have studied the material formally.
Instructors usually give clues as to what is important to remember:
- Material written on the blackboard.
- Repetition.
- Emphasis. (Emphasis can be judged by tone of voice and gesture or by the amount of time the instructor spends on points and the number of examples used.
- Word signals (e.g. "There are two points of view on …," "The third reason is …," "In conclusion …")
- Summaries given at beginning of class.
- Reviews given at beginning of class.
Methods for taking notes.
Make your notes brief.
Never use a sentence where you can use a phrase. Never use a phrase where you can use a word.
Use abbreviations and/or symbols.
The following should be noted exactly:
- Formulas.
- Definitions.
- Specific facts.
Use outline form and/or a numbering system. Indentation helps you distinguish major from minor points.
If you miss a statement, write key words, skip a few spaces, and get the information later.
Don’t try to use every space on the page. Leave room for coordinating your notes with the text after the lecture. (You may want to list key terms in the margin or to make a summary of the contents of the page.)
Date your notes. Perhaps number the pages.
Working with Lecture Notes
While the lecture is fresh in your mind, fill in form.
- Memorize examples and facts that you did not have time to write down during the lecture.
- You can recall what parts of the lecture were unclear to you by using a symbol (asterisk or question mark) so you can consult the lecturer, the graduate assistant, a classmate, your text, or additional reading for further information.
Immediate review results in better retention than after a longer period of time.
- Unless you review your notes within 24 hours after the lecture (or at least before the next lecture), your retention will drop.
- You will be relearning rather than reviewing.
A method of annotation is usually preferable to recopying notes.
Underline key statements or important concepts.
Use an asterisks or other signal marks to indicate importance.
Use margins or blank pages for coordinating notes with the text. Indicate relevant pages of the text beside corresponding information in the notes.
Use a key and a summary.
- Use one of the margins to keep a key to important names, formulas, dates, and concepts. This prepares you to anticipate questions of an objective nature and provides specific facts that you need to develop essays.
- Use the other margin to write a short summary of the topics, relating the topics and contents of the page to the whole lecture or to the lecture the day before. Condensing the notes in this way can help you to learn them and prepare you for the kind of thinking required on essay exams and "objective" exams.
Abbreviations in Note-Taking
Use of abbreviations in note-taking is helpful.
It is possible to abbreviate frequently-used words and still understand them from context. Examples: w for with and ch for chapter. Statements such as Hw rcts w O2 and rd ch 6 for nxt lect are easily understood.
Should an abbreviation be confusing, write out the word instead, e.g., does no mean no or number, does wd mean word, wood, or would?
Go over your notes as soon as possible after the lecture to clarify any confusing abbreviations, legibility, or misunderstanding.
Use plurals and other endings wherever appropriate, e.g., rct, rctg, rct’n for react, reacting, reaction.
Learn the standard abbreviations that have been developed in the field of study. They are usually available for frequently used words and phrases.
Abbreviations usually consist of the first letter and other significant letters of English words. Knowing the derivation of a word may help you understand the abbreviations.
The types of most-noticed letters are:
- Ascenders and descenders, letters such as t, h, l, g, y, and q.
- Letters at the beginning or end of a word.
- In making abbreviations, leave out the vowels and middle letters of a word. Here are some abbreviations used in lecture notes. Can you add any? Are any confusing to you?
Sol’n – solution
W – with
Imp – important
Impr – improve
Kn – know
Kdge – knowledge
No or # - number
= equal or equals
>unequal
abs – absolute
sq rt – square root
ch – chapter
th – theory
prob – problem
probs – problems
mult – multiply
vol or v – volume