6 Strategies for How to Take Good Notes

Learning how to take good notes is an important skill that students should learn at a young age. This skill is going to be used all throughout high school and well into college and in order to be a good note-taker you learn to be a good listener and organizer. Many teachers don’t necessarily teach students how to take notes; it’s usually just assumed that students will know how. Below are 6 strategies for students to use in order to be great note-takers.

1. Have a separate notebook for each class – When the school year starts, make sure that you have a separate notebook for each class. This will allow you to keep your notes organized. For each new day in class, start off your notes on a fresh piece of paper, date the notes, and give them a title at the top. Otherwise you may not be able to tell the difference between the information presented between consecutive days.

2. Write down relevant information – Some students don’t fully understand how to take notes and think that they have to write down every word that the teacher is saying. That’s not true! Only write down important information such as vocabulary words, important concepts, dates, and people’s names.

3. Use visuals – When reading through a text, use a highlighter to identify key points, concepts and definitions. That way when you go to reread through your notes, you can easily recognize what you need to focus on. If you are a visual learner, then try using some type of visual aid to help you when you are note-taking. There are a couple of widely used note-taking strategies which include The Cornell Note-Taking System, outlines and concept maps. The website Productivity Portfolio does a wonderful job explaining the Cornell Note-Taking System and they even show how to create a word template to use to take notes. Both outlines and concept maps are commonly used by students to help organize information. Below are two great videos that explain how to create them.

How to Write an Outline

How to Create a Concept Map

4. Listen carefully – If you’re sitting in class listening to a teacher lecture, there are certain things you can do to become a great note-taker. Listen and look for these particular cues:

A list – for example, “Here’s 5 facts about …”
Emphasis on a certain topic or point
What is written on the board
When the teacher says, “Make sure to write this down.”

Remember, as stated above, don’t write down everything that the teacher is literally saying! You’re going to waste your time and probably frustrate yourself in the meantime. Focus on the important ideas and write down key words and short sentences.

5. Rewrite your notes – This may seem like a boring and redundant activity, but it’s actually very useful. Research shows that when you rewrite notes and/or speak them out loud, you retain the information better. While doing this, take the opportunity to reorganize your notes. The first time you wrote your notes, they may be a little scattered and by rewriting them you can gather information on certain parts of your paper that fit well together.

6. Review your notes! – The whole point of taking notes in the first place is to find a systematic way that will help you study and remember the important information that you will need to know. It’s very important to get in the habit of reviewing your notes on a regular basis. This does not mean that you have to spend countless hours studying and reviewing them. Compare these two situations: One student takes notes during class and then takes about 10-15 minutes each night to look over them to prepare for the quiz next week. Another student takes notes during class and then never bothers to look at them until the night before the quiz. Which student do you think will do better?

Become a great note-taker today so that you can set yourself up as a successful student!

Written by Sarah Kochan

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