How to Take Effective Notes in Class
Have you ever seen that girl with a nice fresh notebook full of strategically highlighted notes get a BAD grade?
Probably not, because she takes the best notes!
And no, I don’t mean the girl with those stereotypical excessively artistic notes- I am talking about the people with neat, organized, minimal yet information dense notes. Those notes that you just can’t help but stare at because they are perfectly formatted, almost as if a computer did it.
Okay, in all seriousness: neat notes are actually beneficial in more ways than one. Our eyes are drawn to these notes purely for aesthetic reasons; but what if I told you that the bigger advantage lies in the process of taking notes, and not in the finished product? And that there is a note-taking method proven to be the most beneficial way to take notes?
Would you believe me?
No?! Then take a look at the evidence and see for yourself!
Note-Taking Supplies – Keep It Simple
The supplies you take notes with are actually EXTREMELY important. Have you ever tried to take a math test but didn’t have scratch paper, so the whole page was a mess, leading to so much confusion because you couldn’t tell which problem was which?
Well, that experience is much like taking notes with less-than-favored supplies. The same way that the overwhelming feeling you get when taking a test becomes exacerbated by cluttered work, your cluttered notes can overwhelm and distract you from the task at hand.
If you are not sensitive to sensory overload interfering with your studies, then this step might not be as important… for me, I can not focus at ALL when I am distracted by a mess!
A sure-fire to avoid messy and distracting notes is by using graph paper notebooks- they are not only for math!
The first thing that drew me to start using graph paper notebooks was that the cubes are smaller than college-ruled paper, so I could fit more information.
After some time taking notes in a graph paper notebook, I realized that taking notes was actually so much quicker that way! In college-ruled notebooks, I would get distracted by the sizing of my letters in comparison to aspects of the page. This ended up wasting some time, because I wasn’t note-taking to the best of my ability…
…I might just be weird for that, but graph paper notebooks are just so much better.
This example can also be applied to the utensils you use to write with… if you have random colors and textures strewn all over your notes, you will be too distracted by the colors to see the important theories and definitions.
All you need to take good notes is ONE pen (black or blue), ONE highlighter, and ONE pencil. As long as you use your favorite tools, your notes will be perfect for you!
I highly recommend using a thin, fast drying pen to take your notes with and a mildliner highlighter for the important information. This way, your notes will be straight to the point while still looking cute and colorful!
See how I am able to make cute notes without using an overwhelming amount of creativity?
Don’t get me wrong, I still use some college ruled books! I just recommend graph paper waaaay more. At the end of the day, graph vs. college-ruled won’t make or break your notes, so don’t stress if you can’t find the right kind of notebook.
But if you are someone who needs some “spacial guidance”, definitely switch over to graph paper ASAP.
Formatting your Notes
I am going to let you in on a little secret: there is no “right way” to format your notes! As long as your notes have a clear title/date, topic heading, and subheadings, that's all you need.
Now with that being said, there are still WRONG ways to format! You must make sure that your notes make sense… I am writing this post assuming that you have taken notes before so you know basic note taking methods
Here are some examples of how I format my notes:
Practice Makes Perfect
If your major note-taking downfall is the illegibility of said notes, the only tip I can give you is to PRACTICE!
Oh yeah and to get a graph paper notebook…
But in all seriousness, you can still improve your handwriting- and you 100% should if you are trying to take effective notes! It is quite easy to improve your handwriting, all you need is practice.
When practicing your handwriting, make sure to take it slow. Repeat the same letter over and over again until it is how you like it. Just. Keep. Trying. Your notes will be neater before you know it!
Studying Your Notes
The most important reason that you should try to take neater notes is because they make studying SO much easier. If you are a visual learner like me, taking creative (yet simplistic) notes in class is the way to go.
There are two ways that I recommend studying your notes. The first way is to simply re-read them!
When you are taking creative notes in class, you are actually absorbing so much more information than you might realize. The first time I didn’t take creative notes, I noticed that I truly did not learn anything in class. With this being said, when you go home and study your pretty notes, all of the course material will come back to you… you will barely need to study! It is almost like a superpower…
The next way to use your notes to study is to rewrite them. Rewriting your notes is especially helpful when you have a teacher or professor who goes very fast in class; sometimes, we don’t get enough time to even think about what we are writing down!
Whether you took plain old notes or extravagant notes, rewriting them is always a good idea. I remember this trick coming in handy in highschool biology class because we had to memorize SO MANY TERMS! When I rewrote my notes, I would draw little doodles to help myself understand the terms, and it worked like a charm! You can even use this trick for vocabulary tests
Check out some examples of my more ‘fun’ notes that I use to study!
I really hope that this post helped you – and if you are a visual learner, I am betting it did! This method is so important for people who learn a little differently, and for those who need to add a little spice to their education.
Effective notes are important for everyone, not only creative people. Whether you are a scholar on the PhD track or a highschool freshman, you can always try out new ways to learn.
Well, that is all I have for you today. Talk to you next week!
