Note Taking

This is my 1 Plus 3 Notes for my math course.

This week we will talk about how to take notes. For most of the courses, note is always playing a very significant role. Since you cannot remember everything single thing which you learned from lecture, so you will need to take a good note. There are basically four different choices: 1 Plus 3 Notes, Plug-in Notes, To Do Notes and SU/Cornell Notes. I have tried two of them, 1 Plus 3 Notes and Plug-in Notes. I used these two different strategy for my MAT 295 course. Both of them are good, but I think 1 Plus 3 Notes strategy works better for me.

This strategy need you to divide your notes into three different sections. We call them section A, section B and section C. We use each of them in different way. For section A, which is on top left corner, this section is for all the important terms. Section B is on the right. This section will be used to make a chart. By using this chart, you can organize the knowledge you just learned better. Generally, I organize by term, definition, and example. The last section is on the bottom. Section C is for questions. I personally believe that this is the most important but also most difficult part. After having understood everything clearly, it is time to develop your own questions. Since this is a math course, you won't be asked to explain a particular term or definition, but you will be required to solve tons of math questions which is based on your understanding of those definitions. To some extent, if you know nothing about those definitions, terms or those formulas, there is no way to sovle any question, but if you can solve those questions, that means you have understood everything you should know. So that's why I think questions are very important.

In terms of Plug-in Notes, I have to admit that this is a great strategy. However, because I am one hundred percent computer illiterate and this strategy is based on computer, so that is bad for me. For example, I spent almost two hours to try to use this for a math lecture which only took 55 minutes. That sounds not good, the lecture only took one hour, but it took me two hours to take notes.