First of all, I would like to give a few facts about note taking rather than techniques. It is necessary to pay attention to the lecture before taking notes. Thinking about the material aids in deciding what needs to be captured for later study. An interactive study session is more important than participating in a lecture as an audience. You can generate questions and can be answered during the lecture.
Diagrams, sketches are more effective than a comprehensive paragraph, since visualization and photographic memory is a powerful technique for memorizing things. For example, Calvin cycle as the cyclic diagram can be memorized than a whole paragraph of facts.
Note taking using mobile devices such as laptop and tab is more popular than conventional hand-written notes. There are many research and experiments those have revealed that the students who had hand-written notes remembered more facts and, have a deeper understanding, and have the capability of interrogating and applying the information better than the students who had taken notes with lap/tab.
| Note taking with an e-device. | Handwritten notes. |
| Relatively mind-less. Record much information than can be readily memorized. |
Need to think what to write down, how to represent and arrange details. |
The findings regarding handwritten notes vs. novel methods are published in “Psychological Science”, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.
What are the elements of a note?
- Title
- Sub-topics / headings
- Key points
- Examples
- Diagrams/ Sketches
- Summary
- Further reading and ideas to follow up.
When taking notes during a lecture, it is essential to use symbols and abbreviations to take notes quickly while listening to the live lecture. After the lecture, you can expand the ideas and include many facts that must be included in note.
A simple technique of taking notes mentioned below….
