Viola’s Note-Taking Strategies

       

         Today this blog is about note-taking strategies.

When you select a note-taking strategy, you have to consider your learning style, the actions, the materials, and the evaluation in the course to find the most suitable strategy for you to take notes. For me, I am read/write learner, so I have a strong preference for learning by Reading and Writing. As a result, it is good for me to take notes (often verbatim) and then read my notes for several times and rewrite the ideas and principles into other words. So I start with using SU/Cornell Note-Taking System.

   Below is my note from an astronomy class. You can see that the sheet is divided into three parts. During the class, I take as many notes as I can in the large box on the right-handed side of the paper. After class, I reread my notes and reduce my notes in the left column by wring terms that help me recall the key information in the lecture. Then I just summarize the note later by writing summaries in the box at the top of the sheet..

I like this strategy because this system forces me to review my notes many times after the class and this definitely help me learn the information more effectively as I am a read/write learner. On the other hand, I choose this strategy for astronomy class as this class is fact-based and the lecture is the main source of the information in this course. As it is fact-based, there are a lot of terms and definitions. So the left-hand-side term box is just useful to help me make a list of the key words of the lecture. It is an easy way to review and prepare for an exam.

As SU/Cornell Note-Taking System turns out to be successful in astronomy class, I try to apply it to my math class, for math course is also fact-based and the lecture is the main source of the information.

After applying it, I find the top box of summary is useless here. It is hard to summarize and the left-hand-side list of the names of the theorem or equations is just enough. This is because unlike the astronomy class which contains several key and subsidiary points in one lecture, there is just one topic in each lecture in the math class. So only the left-hand-side box is just enough to remind me the information in a math class. So I just create a sheet like this. The sheet includes three parts. The right-hand-side large box is used for taking notes in class and the left-hand-side small one is used for writing the main points of the class. The upper blank space is just used for writing the topic of the lecture. I find this version is useful and concise.