Intro to Note-Taking

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Freshman year was difficult. I can't say I wasn't warned in high school that college would be difficult, but I did expect it to be easier. I took mostly AP classes, won awards in most subjects, and graduated Salutatorian. But then, I got my first C's since the third grade. I'm really trying not to be dramatic, but I had a heart attack. " What did I do wrong?" and "I'm just doing what I always do" were thoughts that roared in my mind. I was a failure (In my family C's = F's, okay). 

Imagine it's now May 2018. You just survived your first year of college and spring semester turned out to be harder than the fall, yet, even with all the turmoil of finals you've managed to earn straight A's. Do you spend the summer recovering from the most stress-inducing trial in your new adult life? No! You get two jobs and read books in your spare time at the public library to learn how to better yourself. Maybe that's just me, but the point is I know I could've done better.  

Most college students focus on developing better study habits to improve their grades. Obviously, studying is essential, but learning is a multi-step process. The step I was missing that first semester is taking good notes. Before I take you on this note-taking journey, please ask yourself these three questions. 

Is what I'm doing now working?

The Intro to Anthropology class I took last spring is the staple example for why I take note-taking seriously. For that class I read textbooks, listened to the professor’s lectures, and applied what I learned to the in-class activities. I excelled in everything but the quizzes; they’d come back with 3/10 marks. Half the time, I had no idea what the questions were even asking. That first quiz is when I should’ve accepted that whatever I was doing was clearly not working. 

How do I learn what is being taught to me?

How do you learn?—meaning how do you understand and retain the information being taught to you? There are myriad ways you can learn, and it can differ by course subjects, project topics, the season, or how tired you are. Once I realized I wasn’t learning what I was reading—and spending two hours a night taking notes on—I decided to switch things up.

What should I do now?

This question is why I have written this very article you are reading! My goal is to help you make the most out of your time here at Coe so I read blogs, books, and university websites to create for you a list of the top note-taking methods (linked down below). Hopefully one or all of these methods will you lead to note-taking greatness!


Helpful Links:                            
The Outline Method
The Revised Outline Method
The Column Method
The Mapping Method
The Sentence Method