Note-taking

Students will be taking notes in class and from text or readings. Learning how to identify what needs to be noted and how to do so efficiently will be very important for students to master. Student notebooks are like a personal textbook for reviewing concepts prior to testing or presenting. This strategy can be applied to multiple subjects throughout your academic career.

Taking Notes from Text

First Step: Look at the Chapter Outline; Go through entire chapter and note the headings & side headings/side-bars; These headings should be the same headings for your notes; Briefly read through chapter overview (the beginning paragraphs of the chapter that have no heading) make brief notes of any important facts included.

Step Two: Go to the first heading; Write that down as the title of this section of notes; Look for main ideas & key facts to make bullet-points in your notes; Your notes should be a framework of the chapter which will remind you of the text you have read.

Step Three: As you go through the section make sure to write down vocabulary terms & their definitions; Put them in words that you can understand.

Step Four: As you go through the section pay close attention to people, places and things that are named by the author; Make a brief entry for each.

Step Five: After reviewing each section, determine if there is information that was not explained or unclear; If there are questions or concerns– note those in a separate heading to be brought up in class or sought from a different source.

Step Six: After completing your outline, you should look over it and see if the information makes sense to you (it may be a good idea to do this review after a brief break when you're done). Your notes are a personal textbook tool for studying, thus you should be able to go back to them for review with ease.