One of the biggest struggles that my fellow university colleagues shared with me throughout my degree was uncertainty around the best, most productive way of taking notes. It was around exam time that most of us really went back to the material covered in classes, and often had trouble reading through the notes and understanding what the sessions were all about. I mean, you can write everything down as the lecturer talks, but will a big lump of text with no pointers mean anything to you two months from now? We’ve all learned the hard way that the answer to that is no.
In today’s post, I want to share with you my tips on how to make revision-friendly notes. Notes you can actually use when revision time comes, and that will help you gain a quick and efficient understanding of the material even and especially when you’re running out of time. Chances are, you won’t be able to use my advice for this exam season as you will probably not have a whole lot of time to rewrite all your notes, but chances are, you might need it at least once more in your life. So buckle up for some proper academic guidance on how to make best friends with your notes.
Important: this post contains affiliate marketing, except for the online services Evernote and Quizlet.
Although it might already be self-explanatory, do yourself a favour and take notes in class. It’s easy to tell yourself that you can skip another lecture and catch up later, but trust me on this one: nothing compares to actually sitting in class and writing things down. While sometimes full of information and pointers, PowerPoint presentations will always constitute the skeleton of the lesson, and a lot of things will be said instead of written there. You can go through the digital lecture in your own time, yes, so in your lectures moving forward, try to write down whatever the teacher is saying and is not already on the slides. Every single thing, if possible, and especially what you didn’t know already. Do that. Seriously, do that.
90% of the process of taking notes actually happens at home. You come back from a day of classes with a few pages’ worth of text that doesn’t say much to you just yet. Shock and horror: a lot of the information that you’ve more or less assimilated is not essential, and will probably not be of any use to you mid-exam. Yes. As I said in my previous post on fast and efficient revision, exam revision is solely about boiling down the mass of information that you’ve been equipped with throughout the semester, to the most essential bits that will successfully answer the questions in the exam paper. With your lecture notes, you seek to achieve a global understanding of the topic, before moving on to matters of detail.
Of course, you’ll never consider these aspects while in a class. It’s probably best you don’t, because class is all about assimilating the information; you can disseminate the information at your own pace at home. So we’re moving on to look at how we format the notes we have and make them revision-friendly.
1. Browse your lecture once.
Look through the PowerPoint presentation of the day, and on a scrap piece of paper, scribble down the structure of the lecture. An overview is usually provided at the beginning of the presentation, but you should move on and break it down a bit further. Say, you’re given a classification based on several criteria. For your lecture structure, not only will you write down that a classification is provided, but you will also mention which criteria it’s based on. And so on. This is the shortest step of the process, and it should ideally not take you more than ten minutes.
2. Break down your class notes.
It’s time to look at the notes you took while in class. Read them once or twice, and try to associate the notes you took with the actual content of the lecture: which parts go where, what you wrote about the ideas that are not particularly developed upon in the actual PowerPoint. Your slideshow presentation software should have an option that allows you to add notes and comments in the footer of the actual slides; use that to jot down short ideas based on the notes you took, to remind you where they fit in the greater scheme of things.
3. Categorise the information.
By this point, you should have a fairly-sized body of lecture material, including both the class information and your own individual notes. The material should include a wide range of types of information, such as definitions, classifications, examples, case studies or recommended readings, depending on the subject. Next you want to identify which piece of information belongs to which category, potentially by colour-coding each type you’re working with for this particular lecture; again, this is an option most software programmes have. You will also categorise the most important pieces of information (like core definitions, main theories, etc.), for example by putting a special bullet point next to them. Categorising the information is the most important step of the note-taking process, as it allows you to prioritise certain bits of the information over others, understand the core nature of the material and essentially build a mini-database for yourself to refer back to when you do want to revise, and you will have resources only for the essentials.
4. Delete if necessary.
You will find that some of the information you included in your notes has probably been repeated throughout the semester, or several times per lecture. If you already know it and you hear it more than once, delete it. Make a little reference for it instead, that will take you to the initial place that piece of information occupies in your notes. If a certain piece of information seems completely irrelevant for whatever reason, scrap it. We both agree that you have no time to waste on concepts that you already grasp or you run into every so often.
5. Summarise your notes into their final format.
Now it’s time for the final, most rewarding step: formatting your notes into a neat summary based on the categorising you’ve just done. Rewrite your notes on your chosen platform (in a notebook or on your laptop), including the categories that each piece of information occupies: highlight your definitions in your colour of choice, jot down that star bullet where it belongs. Leave space where possible, to make your notes easier to read and follow. I also recommend that, if you’re writing your notes on paper, you leave a few inches of space on the right margin of your notebook: that is a place for you to make amends if and when necessary. You might not know what kind of information you’ll think you need during revision time, so the space can be used just for that. For digital notes, you can use the comment option that most word-formatting devices provide.
6. (Optional) Make a flashcard.
Flashcards are an efficient method of summarising study material to an even smaller format, which can technically fit in your pocket. I usually make a flashcard for each lecture I format my notes for, and try to find the most essential information to fit on a smaller piece of paper. This is a brilliant way of carefully selecting the information that you think you need the most, and eventually revise and exercise it through repetition. Although flashcards are obviously not compulsory for exam revision, you might want to try this method and see how it works for you!
Should you take your notes on paper or on your laptop?
This is really a matter of preference and accessibility. Research has indeed shown that writing notes on paper helps you memorise the information more efficiently. At the same time, digital notes are a more environmentally-friendly method, and they are also more comfortable to take around rather than a bulky notebook or a binder. Feel free to experiment with both methods and see which one works for you! I, for one, take all my notes on paper except for the times I cannot have a notebook with me wherever I go, and that’s when I do it on my laptop.
My essentials list for taking notes
There are several items and tools that I like to use when taking notes, especially when I know they will be used for revising for exams. In fact, I can’t fathom exam revision without the following:
Highlighters – ideal for coding and categorising. I’m especially a fan of the Stabilo Boss Original Pastel Highlighters, as they offer a variety of colours that is perfect for categorisation, and the pastel nuances are also really pretty. You can purchase your own pack of six assorted colours by clicking here.
Binder dividers – I like keeping my notes in a binder, and binder dividers help me organise them based on subjects and core topics. I use the Q-Connect KF26082 A4 Subject Dividers, which come in a variety of colours which also happen to match my highlighters. You can get your own pack of ten by clicking here.
Evernote – Evernote is an American software and website designed for note taking, lists, organising and archiving. Coming in three different packages, Basic, Premium and Business, Evernote can be used for anything from taking notes in class, to writing a simple shopping list. I’ve only recently starting using Evernote as it is more efficient than writing my notes in a word-formatting app and saving them onto my computer, and I’m very happy with my experience so far! It is definitely an app worth looking at if you like storing your class notes digitally.
Quizlet – Compared to Evernote, Quizlet is entirely dedicated to learning through games and practical tasks, as well as creation and storage of flashcards. It comes in both a free and paid premium version, and the app can be downloaded on your phone for use on the go. Although I do love writing classic paper flashcards, Quizlet is particularly useful for learning in a rather interactive sort of way, and often offers me a nice twist from the classic way of revising. Worth giving a try!
And with that, these are my tips for making revision-friendly notes! How many of these methods or tools were you already using? Are there any other methods you would recommend? Feel free to make any suggestions you might have in the comments section below!
I’m halfway through my short series on exams, and I already planned what the two upcoming posts are going to be about. If there’s anything you would like to see, though, please do let me know! I’d like to cover things that are of interest for you, first and foremost.
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