A Quick Guide to Effective Note Taking

Hi everyone,

I hope that you are all doing well and have enjoyed the virtual open days that have been going on recently. Today I want to talk to you all about the importance of effective note taking skills at university. Effective note taking is a vital skill for a successful time in higher education. There are many ways that this can be achieved though, it is not a one size fits all scenario.

Personally, I like to write notes in semi-sentences. Granted, I do have Sonocent Audio Notetaker for lectures, but I make notes by hand in seminars and screenings. I shall now demonstrate my note taking style:

My seminar tutor says the following:

“Mildred Pierce is a great example of the film noir genre, due to its use of what can be considered film noir aesthetics and tropes.”

I would write that statement down in the following way:

Mildred Pierce = example of film noir = aesthetics and tropes

Being quite the slow writer due to my CP, I find it easier to just write down the key words. This means that I don’t miss anything important because I don’t waste time writing down unimportant words. In a similar vein, don’t feel like you have to write down everything you hear in a seminar, just focus on the points that you think will be of use to you in the future.

When we had a session on note taking in first year, the session leader told us that some people make notes using the first letter of each word. This could be a quicker alternative, but you’d need to make sure that you could remember what each word was!

If your memory functions better via the usual of visuals, you could also make notes using symbols. Each symbol could represent a key point/theory. You could then convert the symbols into words during the revision process. This method could also help you if you need to keep your hands busy in order to concentrate.

Whichever method you choose to use, it has to be right for you. There is no right or wrong- after all, you’re the only one who will be using the notes!

I hope that this post has been useful and will help the incoming students out there to find their note taking method of choice before the new term starts. Let me know in the comments below which method you like the best!