Taking notes II

Read  the earlier Post about note taking and reviewing. Why is note taking so important? Why is regular review so important? These two very simple processes are absolute key to Success at School. Your high school years are full of maxi and mini events. What you do every day is almost always influenced in some way by the requirements of the school system. They are often tough to fulfil. They are often unclear. They often lead to stress. Getting properly organised for note taking and reviewing can reduce stress to manageable levels and give you a better chance of improved exam grades. If for nothing else, that must make these skills worthwhile.

Surely taking notes is just copying off the board? Get down what the teacher writes on the board. There's even time for a quick chat. No need to listen too hard, it will mostly be there for later reading, usually much later. If you miss a few bits here and there because of distractions, you will have most of it and should be able to fill the rest in later. Not a good plan. The bits you missed? Filling those in will get harder the longer it is left. Get good notes at the time they are given. You're mad if you don't. Your notes are essential to success at high school. Some students seem clearly proud about how scruffy and full of graffiti and other artwork their notebooks are. Scraps of words from the lesson, mixed with scraps of words from another lesson, another subject even; days all mixed up with work put into any available blank space; ripped and crumpled pages all go against good grades. Best use for these notebooks? Starting up the Sunday barbecue. They are next to useless as tools for learning.

Anyone can copy. Anyone. Ask a student from a very early grade, who can basically write and copy shapes, and they could do a reasonable job of copying. They will be a bit slow because they are not familiar with the style and the symbols. Their writing will be a bit more basic but it will be there. Do they understand it? Almost certainly not. You see, the thing about copying is it requires almost no thought if we are familiar with the numbers and symbols. That's the trouble. Too easy to copy. Too easy to think we have it all. Do not kid yourself. Copying without thought is pretty much a useless exercise. Copying has nothing to do with learning unless it is done with thought and commitment.

OK, 'I get it' I hear you say.

We have talked about the importance of a separate notebook for each subject and using few colors of pen. For a ruler, you can use almost any straight edge. Just writing and highlighting, no extra bits. If you like to doodle take a doodle book with you to class and keep the sketching and arty thoughts there. The cleaner the page is to study, the better.

The photo above is the bare minimum I use. I like a mechanical pencil because I never have to sharpen it and it doesn't leak ink all in my pocket. Use a soft lead (I use 2B) that will make dark lines which are easy to read when you are tired. Leads harder than this are too light and will cause unnecessary eye strain if you have to read a lot. The small notebook is for incidental information for every part of high school and holds a wonder of information about when stuff is due, if I am running out of things or if I need to remember to do something, graffiti and odd bits of artwork even. This has taken many forms over the years but this one can easily fit into my pocket. As you can see I travel light to class. To highlight, I circle. To emphasise, I double underline. The eraser is there for show. I usually just cross something out if I change my mind about it. This set up has the other advantage of being cheap. Of course, there are smaller books you can get. I recommend a fairly large size to fit any sketches or long bits of information on one page, rather than breaking it up. Remember, one notebook for each subject. Judge the size of the notebook by asking or by last year's volume of work in a subject.

Make sure your notes count. Look at them as you go. If the teacher says something to fill in a bit of information, get it down. They cannot possibly write all they say in a lesson on the board. Make sure you know what is on the page. Put a * next to bits you are not sure of as a signal to get extra information here. Ask a question, if you want. If that is not done in your group; google, other students, the teacher, the library could all help. If you had a bit of difficulty following some reasoning, again add * to go back and fill in more until you are happy with it. The * will also be clues for when you study as you will know you had some difficulty first time going over it and so you can make sure you feel comfortable with these weaker areas. Study is not about what you know but what you had trouble with or are a bit fuzzy on.

A bit of hard work in class will pay back generously when you come to review and study.

Good luck with your exams.

Have a great day