Taking Better Lecture Notes
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We've put together some strategies to help students take better classroom notes. While these tips have been developed especially for middle school and high school students, you'll find that even elementary level students will benefit from them.
Of course, there's no better source than our very own Great Homework and Study Skills to learn everything you need to know to become a better student, improve your grades and achieve a better understanding of what you learn.
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Taking better lecture notes all starts with the process of listening. Becoming a better listener is a talent, like any other, that can be developed through practice. The more involved one becomes in the process of listening, the better one can understand, prioritize and interrelate the concepts presented. Here are a few tips on your way to becoming a better listener in the classroom:
- Active listeners focus on what the speaker is saying.
- They try to find the important details, and ask themselves questions like "How does this relate to what we talked about yesterday or to what I read in the textbook?"
- They think of personal examples that relate to what the speaker is saying.
- They picture scenes being described, or draw diagrams in their notes for clarification.
- They ask questions and participate in class discussion.
Part of your task as an active listener is to home in on key points and important supporting details, while filtering out unimportant trivia. Think of yourself as a detective with one of the richest sources of clues standing directly in front of you -- your teacher! Learn to pay attention to your teacher's body language and use of phrases that can tip you off when information is important and should be copied into your notes.
- If a point isn't important, the teacher might be looking out the window or talking softly.
- If a point is important, the teacher is probably at the front of the room, emphasizing the information in a raised voice.
- The teacher repeats something several times, or writes it on the board
- The teacher uses key phrases like, "The most important thing...," "The causes leading up to...," "Pay special attention to this...," or "There are four important points that I'll make about..."
Deciding what notes to take down and how to write them is more of an art form. Again, there are a number of helpful note taking techniques that can also be developed through practice. While we'll go into much greater detail about these in Great Homework and Study Skills, here are some excellent tips you can start applying right away:
- Don't try to write every word.
- Use your own form of shorthand, including abbreviations, symbols, diagrams and drawings.
- Try to draw parallels between your own experience and knowledge and the lecture.
- Look for a structure in your instructor's lecture. If he or she says there were three main issues at stake in the Civil War, look for those three issues to be clearly defined, and listen for details about each one.
- Try to review your notes as soon as you can after class, mark the most important points, and do a little reorganization if you need to, for instance drawing an arrow from a topic that belongs in a different spot than where you have it written.
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Using Our Site to Learn About Study Skills
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- Want to achieve better grades and have a better understanding of the material you read?
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Please take a few moments to see everything our site has to offer. Visit our Taking Better Classroom Notes page for some quick tips to improve your note taking skills. Our Homework Help page connects you to helpful homework tips, tools, and homework reference sites. Our Study Skills Links provide helpful resources for even more homework and study skills tips, checklists, study strategies and more. So enjoy our free study skills resources web site and use it as your home base for study skills and homework help.
Of course, there's no better source than our very own Great Homework and Study Skills to learn everything you need to know to become a better student, improve your grades and achieve a better understanding of what you learn. If you're a teacher, be sure to check out our Great Homework and Study Skills Teacher's Manual: Ten Teacher Lesson Plans. Two independent versions of this remarkable teacher's guide are available! One is designed specifically for middle school, and the other is for high school teachers. Both guides cover the same comprehensive material with level-appropriate objectives, activities, handouts and exercises.
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