College 101 – Blog 5 of 8: How to take usable lecture notes and what to do with them!

When you are taking notes in your classes you are really creating an entirely new document that you will use to learn the course material.  Your professor may or may not review the material in the textbook.  They also may not plan class activities to help students learn the material in the lecture.   The bottom line is that you are solely responsible for recording, understanding and learning the information.  So, where do you start?

1.       During class, take usable notes from the lecture:

a.       Read the textbook BEFORE class.

b.       Write down everything the professor says.

c.       Pay particular attention to what is written on the board or Power Point.

d.       If possible, print out any Power Point slides before class and READ THEM.

e.       Look for the overall organization of the lecture.

f.        Look for connections to what you read in the textbook BEFORE class.

g.       Leave white spaces between topics.  Your goal is to have usable notes, not to save paper.

2.       After class:

a.       Read your notes and identify any missing information, questions, misspellings, etc.

b.       Fill in any gaps using the textbook, fellow students, peer tutoring, or during an office visit with your professor.

c.       If your notes are a mess, rewrite.

d.       Use recitation – read a logical section of notes, shut your notebook and try to restate in your own words what you read.   If you can, move on to next section.  If you cannot, reread and try again.

e.       Create a study guide to help you learn – study cards with important people, events, etc.; concept maps to show comparison and contrasts review chart over several topics; whatever format works with the information.

f.        Study the study guide!

3.       Long term:

a.       At least once a week, review all of the lecture notes that will be on the next exam.

b.       Look for over-riding themes or topics.

c.       Create larger study guides where appropriate.

This is what you are doing on a daily and weekly basis.  The next blog will deal with preparing for a major exam.

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