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

De-clutter your school setup

While you get all the information together to get some time management going, let us have a look at some other things that go a long way to gettng yourself organised in such a way that success is more likely to happen, giving your grades every chance of improving. A good next thing in that direction is to de-clutter your school setup. What? School setup. Let's go. Do you use a pen with blue ink or black ? Maybe it's green or purple or orange. Maybe it's a mix of all of these or maybe even a pencil.

What about your notes where do they finish up? A stack of loose leaf pages all over your room, locker and scrunched up in your bag? Various size notebooks. Various quality notebooks. Subjects all mixed with each other in a confusing mix of vital information that is often hard to retrieve when we are under stress such as when we are studying for exams or trying to go over a particularly hard topic. If your parents buy your stationery, how do they know what to get?

It is better to get everything you use  at school as standard as possible. Use a notebook that suits your style. Pick maybe two or three colors of pen and a pencil and use them for all occasions. Do not use light colors as they get hard to read if you are working off your notes on a regular basis. As long as the colors are dark, it will be OK. Do not write in the same color your teacher uses to mark or comment on your work. They will find it annoying. It will be hard for you to distinguish positive comment and marks from your normal work. Annoyed people can't help but choose wrong if a decision is close.

What you need to do is standardise as much as possible. Funnily enough, you gain headspace by doing this. You don't have to think what color pen/pencil, what sort of notebook, what equipment should come to class, what bag I will carry it in???? It is just all right there ready to go. When it comes time to study, History notes will be in the History notebook, Math in the Math notebook ... Easy. It just puts a bit more relax in your life. When you read, the colors of ink you read will be the same for all subjects, easier because the brain does not think something different is incoming with each color change. Ink (your choice of color but dark, remember) means something important is being looked at, so let's think about it.

Does all this seem too simple? Well, it's not. Standardise what you can. Stop worrying about a stack of fancy colors or being lazy by putting four or five subjects into one notebook. Get a notebook for each subject, use only two or three dark colored pens, one highlighter, 2B pencil for easy erasure and easy reading. Get the minimum of necessary equipment. Do not clutter up your bag and desk with myriad trinkets. You need to be a Success At School. Take the line of least resistance.

Don't forget to keep collecting information about everything that uses up your time. Keep a notebook for this too. School, work, sport, leisure, time out, sleep, practise, community service; everything you can think of that takes time, write down.

Good luck with your studies. Have a great day