Great Note-Taking Strategies for All Occasions

Especially when you are just starting college it is difficult to figure out just what you have to take down. There is a time where you feel like you truly need to write down every word that the teacher says. This is also shown by students who highlight almost every word in their textbooks. It is important to really analyze what you need to know and how to get it down.

1. Teachers who write nothing on the board. They can be wonderful and humorous and the most fascinating teachers in the world, but let's face it: It is one of the most stressful things in the world to be without any sort of hints as to what is important. You can try to write everything they say down but lets face it there is no possible way to accomplish this. The most important things you can do is take down main topics. How can you know it is a main topic? Lets face it if they start with it, it is a main topic. You need to take it down. If they have talked about it for at least five minutes it is a main topic. If they are mentioning specific facts, figures or dates in conjunction with these take it down(especially if they give essay exams.)

2. Teachers who perpetually write terms on the board that have nothing to do with lecture. Usually you will know about the teachers who do this. These are the teachers that go off on rabit trails that have nothing to do with the subject or tests but feel that you need to know something. While these teachers are concerned for their students well being it is important to not get off track by these terms. By all means write these down because they might be on the test(you can also usually impress an instructor by slipping a reference to these on essay exams or papers) but still try to make sure you can sort through all that they are saying.

3. Teachers who have no cohesive lectures or perpetually scatter in test knowledge. You feel like you have to write down everything with these teachers and you feel like there is no hope in being able to wade through and remember all this information. In this case you need to look away from the teacher(you are wasting precious time by looking back and forth) look at your paper and write down any name, date, event, or irregular terms you hear. It is important for you to skip extraneous words and know that if you get the basics you can look the rest up later