Effective Note-taking: the Basics

Note-taking is something that I find is essential for really acing that final exam. It may not be the most effective for everyone when it comes to studying, but several studies have shown that writing is more effective for remembering something as compared to the classical reading. Here, I will be talking about some tips and tricks that I have picked up in my experience of note-taking, which is sadly limited to only textbook-based notes, as I don’t see the need to make lecture notes just as yet. On a final note (ha, note, get it), these are things that have worked for me, and may not work for everyone.

1. Have a note-taking code. What I mean by this is that you need to have a certain method of note-taking. You will discover what works best for you as you make more notes. For example, I use two color pens for making boxes around important things: blue (what I write my notes with) for not-so-important things which are only summarized in the form of, say, a table, and purple (for highlighting) to mark out the extremely important things for last-minute revision, like definitions.
2. Your notes should be legible. There’s no point in making notes if you won’t understand what you’ve written when you actually get around to studying them. Although, you have no obligation to make your notes comprehensible to anyone else. Remember, these are your notes.
3. Make yourself look forward to it. Buy pretty notebooks, amazing pens, make your notes aesthetically pleasing, do what you can to make yourself look forward to note-taking. I personally enjoy note-taking as compared to reading as it keeps my brain active because I have to focus on what I need to take down and how.
4. Don’t waste too much time on making your notes look ‘pretty’. Now, I know how tempting it is to achieve the look of those pictures of notes on Pinterest, but note-taking should revolve around functionality and usefulness, not aesthetics. I know this somewhat contradicts my previous point but if you’re taking more time to decorate your notebook than taking actual notes, there’s going to be a problem.
5. Draw those diagrams. Since you’re going to be making notes only once (hopefully), drawing the diagrams in your textbook will help you visualize it during the exam. Draw a fair diagram once in your notebook, annotate it instead of just labeling (this means writing down one line about each labelled part), and try doing this without looking at the textbook. This works especially well for visual learners, even though this mainly applies to more scientific subjects such as biology and chemistry.
6. Don’t go overboard with highlighting. Notes are supposed to be a summary of the most important parts of the topic. Highlighting notes does help in last-minute studying, but highlighting everything simply defeats the purpose of notes. I personally don’t use highlighters, but instead I underline or draw a box with a mildly colored (contrasting) pen so that I don’t end up staring at a page of neon green.
7. Compile notes from different sources. When you have everything relating to a single topic at one place, studying becomes several times more convenient. Notes allow you to do just that. You can summarize out annotations in your textbook, extra information provided by your teacher, and even information from online videos and articles. That way, you have everything in one place and don’t have to go looking for other books and references.
8. Know that this is mostly for last-minute studying. Notes are helpful if you need to quickly revise a concept some time before the exam. This does not mean that you will not read the textbook. Unless you’ve copied down the whole text, reading the text refreshes concepts you didn’t even know you’d forgotten. Don’t rely on notes for complete exam studying.