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How to take notes

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Take notes in your own words

 Taking notes in your own words means you have

to actively think about the lesson content and
seek to understand it
 By comparison, trying to just copy down word for
word what your teachers say dedicates too much
working-memory to transcribing and not enough
to thinking
 Keep notes brief and understandable
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Review early and often

 Review your notes shortly after each lesson (the same

day is best) then identify and clarify any questions that
you have
 Make use of a note taking system such as Cornell Notes
to structure summary notes about:
a handout, an article, a PowerPoint, a video, textbook
chapter, syllabus dot point etc
 Space
your study over many sessions rather than
cramming all at once
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Test yourself
 Testing
yourself is a much better strategy than
simply passively reading over notes
 Usethis testing to determine what you do and
don’t know
 Thiswill help you to determine what content you
you still need to review
 Whenever possible try and incorporate some self-
testing into your study sessions
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Typing VS writing
 While some may prefer to type notes during class,
it is best to hand write notes
 Writing forces you to be more selective than
typing and hence you are less likely to just
transcribe and more likely to put your notes into
your own words
 Inaddition, using a laptop to take notes adds to
the temptation of being distracted by your laptop
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Avoid misconceptions

 Oftenstudents think that if the content presented

during a lesson is clear and easy to understand, it
will be memorable
 Avoidthis misconception! Always ensure that
you take notes, as you will forget lesson content if
you don’t!
 The full version of this research paper can be found
at: http://hilt.harvard.edu/files/hilt/files/notetaking_0.pdf