How to Take Smart Notes (Book Summary)
How to Make Notes Well
Whether you want to succeed in school or reach your career heights, writing notes effectively is an important art for remembering, speaking, and reading information. Not only will you learn to take notes if you follow these simple steps and steps; You'll learn an effective way to do this that will help you remember and use the information.
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| Be ready |
1 . Be ready
Gather your note-taking equipment. This may sound
simple, but you should have all of your note-taking organized before the start
of any class, meeting, or lecture.
If you'll be making notes with pen and paper, make
sure you have an A4-sized notebook with plenty of blank pages and two pens of
each color. If you're going to be using a laptop, make sure it's fully charged,
or you can sit near a power outlet.
If you wear glasses, keep them with you, lest your
teacher/lecturer write important information on a white or blackboard. If you
wear glasses, carefully bring a small microfiber cloth along so that you can
clean them if needed. Also, sit in a place in the room where you can easily see
and hear the speaker.
2. Gather your note-making supplies
Before you attend a class, lecture, or meeting, go through your notes from last time. This allows you to easily pick up where you ended up studying and move on at a quick pace.
• If you were asked to do background reading for
class, do so carefully. This will help you to understand the themes, concepts
and ideas that the teacher/lecturer is going to offer. The best idea would be
to create the role of that section, article or chapter in advance.
| Write this outline on one side of the paper so that
you can write your class notes on the other side
• You must have heard this saying "By failing to
prepare, you are preparing to fail"
3. Make the best notes
Focus on keywords and topics. One of the most
important changes you can make to your note-making art is to focus only on
keywords and topics.
Identify the most important information. Whatever
keywords and sentences are most important to the topic—such as dates, names,
theories, and definitions—include only the most important information. Eliminate
all the rest of the middle words or less important information - if you wanted
to know that, you would read the textbook.
Think about what you want to remember. Why are you
taking this class? Why are you attending this seminar? Why did your employer
send you to attend the conference? You might find that the first thing you have
to write down is what you hear or see, remembering that you're taking notes to
learn from them—you're not writing a novel.
If you get any "new" information, give
importance to it. Don't waste your time writing down the information you already
know—it's useless to you and will only waste your time. Give importance to
writing down the information you didn't already know anything about—this will get
you the most out of taking your notes.
Use the "question, answer, proof" approach.
This is the most effective way to take notes because it allows you to engage
with the information and write it down in your own way. It has been proved that
by changing the information in this way, writing helps students to understand and
remember it effectively.
It is better to listen to what the speaker is saying
and understand that information than to copy the information line by line. Once
you've done that, write down your notes in the form of questions that arise
from this information, and then write down your answers.
For example, if the question is "What is the main
theme of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet?", the answer would be more than
"a sad love story." Romeo and Juliet talk more about the
consequences of enmity.
4. Use shorthand.
A typical student can write 1/3 words per second,
while a typical speaker speaks at 2/3 words per second. Therefore, creating
your own method of shorthand will allow you to write efficiently and without
the fear of being left behind.
Type something like "wd" for would,
"cd" for could, and "w/" for with. Use the word for
"and". Apart from this, write the words that come again and again in
class or lecture by shortening them—for example, if "popular
sovereignty" is coming to write 25 times in history class, then write
"pop sov" by shortening it.
It's also important to understand your shorthand
later—if you think you'll have a problem with it, write a key on the inside of
your copy on the cover. You can also go after class and complete those words.
If the speaker is speaking too quickly despite the
shorthand, bring along a recording device for the next class—this will give you
a chance to listen again and fill in the gaps in your notes.
Make your notes beautiful. If your notes are hard to
understand, cluttered, and messy, you may not feel like reading them again, so
it's important to keep them looking good! Here are some tips for making
beautiful notes:
Always start on a new page. If you start your notes
for each new class or topic on a new page, you will find it easier to read.
Write the date in the top left hand and write on only one side of the page,
especially if you're using ink pens.
Note that your writing should be recognizable. If you
can't read those notes later, making them is a waste of time! No matter how
fast you type, make sure your writing is short, clear, and readable, and of
course, avoid using cursive handwriting.
Use wide margins. Line each page with a pen and scale,
leaving a wide margin on the right side.
5. Be an active listener.
When taking notes,
many people make the mistake of writing without understanding the meaning of
what is being said.
• This is a mistake. If you don't try to understand
the topic during class, you'll miss out on a valuable learning opportunity.
• Therefore, you have to try to understand as much
information as you can when you listen for the first time, so that you don't
have to work too hard and get confused at the time of revision.
6. Write down notes.
Although
taking notes on a laptop is quite comfortable, according to research from
Princeton University, you'll remember them much better if you take notes by
hand.
• This is because laptop users keep writing silently
whatever they hear word by word and do not understand the matter.
• Note writers in longhand, on the other hand, do not write every word at a speed that can be copied, so they have to pay a little more attention to the material to understand the most important and important information
7. Don't Be Afraid to Ask Questions:
Whenever you
are faced with something you don't understand, don't write it down silently and
think about it later—at the same time talk to the teacher/lecturer about it
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• Think of it this way—if you're confused about
something right now, when you review your notes, you'll find that thing twice
as confusing.
• Don't be afraid to ask the teacher/lecturer to
explain again—especially if you think they've said something important.
8. Make the best notes:
Focus on keywords and topics. One of the most
important changes you can make to your note-making art is to focus only on
keywords and topics.
• Identify the most important information. Whatever
keywords and sentences are most important to the topic—such as dates, names,
theories and definitions—include only the most important information. Eliminate
all the rest of the middle words or less important information - if you wanted
to know that, you would read the textbook.
• Think about what you want to remember. You
• Think about what you want to remember. Why are you
taking this class? Why are you attending this seminar? Why did your employer
send you to attend the conference? You might find that the first thing you have
to write down is what you hear or see, remembering that you're taking notes to
learn from them—you're not writing a novel.
• If you get any "new" information, give
importance to it. Don't waste your time writing down the information you already
know—it's useless to you and will only waste your time. Give importance to
writing down the information you didn't already know anything about—this will get
you the most out of taking your notes.
9. Make your notes beautiful.
If your notes are hard to understand, cluttered, and
messy, you may not feel like reading them again, so it's important to keep them
looking good! Here are some tips for making beautiful notes:
• Always start on a new page. If you start your notes
for each new class or topic on a new page, you will find it easier to read.
Write the date in the top left hand and write on only one side of the page,
especially if you're using ink pens.
• Note that your writing should be recognizable. If you can't read those notes
later, making them is a waste of time! No matter how fast you type, make sure
your writing is short, clear, and readable, and of course, avoid using cursive
handwriting.
• Use wide margins. Line each page with a pen and
scale, leaving a wide margin on the right side. By doing this, the page will
not be too full and you will also get a place to write any more information at
the time of reviewing the notes.
10. Taking notes from your textbook:
After a class
or lecture, you may want to make your notes mature from your textbook. Making
notes from a textbook is also an art worth knowing.
• Understand the information. Before you sit down to
read all the information directly, take a look at it to see what it says. Read
any introductions and conclusions, headers and sub-headers, and the first and
last lines of a paragraph. If there are any charts, illustrations, or diagrams
in addition to this, see them as well.
•Read the entire text carefully. Now again go to the beginning of the text and read it completely from beginning to end. Once you've read a paragraph, go back and highlight keywords, facts, concepts, or important quotes. Look for reasons in the textbook-like some bold or italicized words, or important topics with colors and bullet points.
• Take notes. Once you've read your text, go back and
make notes with the information you highlighted.
Don't copy entire sentences—it just wastes time—and
write it in your own words as much as possible.
1.
Reviewing
notes
. Review your notes later in the day. Reviewing your
notes after class, or later in the day will help you remember information
better. You don't need to read them very deeply—just look at them every night
for 15-20 minutes.
• If there are any blanks, fill them. Spend your
review time filling in the information you remember from class or lectures.
2. Write a summary.
The most effective way to keep your notes memorized is
to adjust the information at the top of the page.
Test yourself. To find out your understanding of the
topic, try to explain it to yourself - either out loud or in your head.
• See how many important things you are able to
remember, and then read those notes to see that you haven't left out any
information.
• Explain the topic to your friend. By teaching or
explaining to a friend, you can know that you have understood the topic
completely and whether it has been fully explained in your notes or not.
Memorize your notes. You will see the benefits of good
notes when it is exam time and you need to memorize all the details. If you
review your notes regularly for 20-30 minutes each night, you'll find it much
easier to remember things. You can use these techniques to remember:
• Line by Line Method: If you need to memorize a text,
a simple technique is to read the first line several times, and then try to
speak it without looking at the paper. Similarly, read the second line a few
times, then try to speak without looking at the first and second lines.
Continue in this manner until you can read the entire text without looking at
the paper.
• Story Technique: In this method, you turn the
information you need to remember into a simple story that you can remember
easily. For example, if you want to remember the elements (hydrogen, helium,
and lithium) of group 1 of the periodic table, you can remember the story “Heer
(H) and Harjit (H) went to library (L) | It is not necessary that the story has
a rhyme—the more frivolous the story, the better.
• Mnemonic device: Using a mnemonic device, you can
remember words in a specified order. To make a mnemonic, simply select the
first letter of the word you want to memorize and form a short sentence in
which each word is made up of these letters. For example, to remember the
musical staff's EGBDF line, you can create the mnemonic "Every good boy is
fine"
• For more popular and effective memorization
techniques, see the article
Best advice
• If the speaker is saying something more than twice,
it is probably important and you should pay attention to it.
• Carefully carry several pencils/pens together in
case the pencil becomes short or breaks, or the pen dries out or freezes.
• If you are reading a book of English Literature in
class, keep a packet of Post It in hand, as you will not be allowed to write in
the book.
• After reviewing your notes, find an online quiz or
have a member of the household write a question on the topic. If you can't
answer these questions with your notes, you'll need to write better notes next
time.
• Make notes of two or three pages a day, or as many
as you need—and add them to your main file
• Label your notes with bullets or numbers. Think of a
title for your notes so you know where to put them and be organized whenever
you need to read them for a test you're going to have.
• Make sure you have a separate notebook or page for
each topic and label it.
• Manage your notes using software like Evernote or
Microsoft Office OneNote to organize notes.
• If your school/college allows, you can record your
classroom lectures using separate apps.
• Keep all your subjects separate. Keeping everything
in one binder/folder/notebook creates confusion and looks bad.
Warning
• Ask your teacher/professor before using the
recording device.
• Bring a separate piece of paper or sticky notes to
keep with you and write down what you've written on both sheets to show what's
attached to it.
• Don't let your attention be distracted by the words
of anyone other than the speaker.
