Taking Notes

[kiteflyersmom]

Do you have a method for taking notes that has been effective for you? Daughter #2 is a rising senior in high school and seems to have trouble in this area. I recall that for me it was just a matter of finding my own little system of organizing important information. In an effort to help her with this before college I Googled Cornell Notes (also known as 2-column notes) and it looks good.

Any tips? Thank you.

[ThetaPrincess24]

Originally Posted by kiteflyersmom

Do you have a method for taking notes that has been effective for you? Daughter #2 is a rising senior in high school and seems to have trouble in this area. I recall that for me it was just a matter of finding my own little system of organizing important information. In an effort to help her with this before college I Googled Cornell Notes (also known as 2-column notes) and it looks good.

Any tips? Thank you.

I don't know how it is in high school anymore, but at mine, the teacher would write everything on the board and it was expected that everyone would write down what was on the board. In college, that wasn't the case and it took be a while to figure it out. I did figure out on my own that if an instructor asks a question in class, it was to my benefit to write down that question and the answer as I often saw it again on exams. A lot of instructors push reading material before class, and while that works for some classes, I found it more helpful to do the reading after class as it helped me reinforce the lecture and my notes better for memory retention.

[ColdInCanada11]

I would also say to help improve note-taking, work on listening skills! In grades 6-9, every single morning, we listened to the news for 2 minutes and had a brief quiz following. It is incredible how much active listening affects your ability to take notes. If you can learn to pick out the key parts, it can help you streamline your notes (and refine your note-taking process). From almost a decade of tutoring history students, one of the most common problems I see is students trying to write down absolutely every word said- not going to help in the long run! Also, re-writing notes helps, as you are reviewing AND deciding "Okay, is this crucial?". I would certainly say that just writes notes as normal, and THEN use the Cornell system for review/rewrites.

[FSUZeta]

When my son was in HS (he graduates with his masters in a week!) they were taught how to take notes using the Cornell method.

And ColdinCanada, I second rewriting the notes, especially if the rewrite is done that evening. It not only helps with the points that CinC said, but if the note taker wasn't sure about a spelling or left out a word, it is more likely that she will be able to catch it and correct it before she forgets it.

[MysticCat]

I'm going to throw in my $0.02. Definitely do what you can to help your daughter learn to take notes. But at the same time, pay attention to her learning style(s). My learning style is heavily auditory, and also visual. If I hear it, I remember it; if I see/read it, I'm also likely to remember it. But if I try to write while something is being said, I don't hear it and end up missing half of what was said because my focus goes to what I'm writing. As a result, note-taking is not helpful at all for me; it's counter-productive. And yes, that means that the notes I took during classes in four years of college and three years of law school could be mailed with one stamp.

We are seeing indications of the same traits with our daughter (middle school) now—the one class this past year where the teacher required note-taking, meaning "write down everything I say," was the class she struggled in the most. She did great in the classes where the teacher would say "do what works best for you." When we talked about it, she'd say "When I'm taking a test, I can remember and hear what my teachers said in my head. But when I have to take notes, then when I get into a test I can't hear in my head what the teacher said."

I'm not saying give up on notes. But I am saying recognize that there really are people for whom note-taking is not helpful. The goal shouldn't be learning to take good notes, it shoud be learning what works best for oneself. If your daughter is one of the people for whom note-taking is not helpful, then what she may need to focus on are things like paying attention in class and then some way of reinfocring that later, like taking time every night to write down what was said in class that day.

Good luck!

[kiteflyersmom]

Thank you, everyone. Congrats, FSUZeta- you must be so proud!

MysticCat- you bring up a very good point. Not every approach works for everyone. My daughter seems to more of a visual learner and honestly I think it's hard for her to be a good listener. She has been on ADD meds since elementary school. She is a high-achieving student, and I am hoping she will be able to figure out what works for her (I guess we all did, so I'll try not to worry). I agree with Theta Princess. There is a bit of a learning curve on how to handle notes at the beginning of college. I remember my teachers in high school would tell us what to write and that wasn't necessarily the case in college.

Thank you all- I'm going to try to help her figure out what works. She will have to do most of it on her own as she figures out a method that works for her.

[AZTheta]

Don't know if it's true for all colleges or universities - but I provide copious handouts, powepoints (which I hate but which are really helpful), and other visual supports online. I use lecture time as an opportunity to engage in discussion and dialogue related to the topic and assigned readings. Apply the knowledge is my goal. Don't want the students focused on trying to get down information they think they need to know for the exam. I hope that you will be able to provide support for your HS daughter so she'll have a handle on this by the time she hits college.

[maconmagnolia]

Originally Posted by AZTheta

Don't know if it's true for all colleges or universities - but I provide copious handouts, powepoints (which I hate but which are really helpful), and other visual supports online. I use lecture time as an opportunity to engage in discussion and dialogue related to the topic and assigned readings.

I currently attend a large, state school in the Midwest and almost every single one of my professors provides either an outline of the notes or a powerpoint of the notes online. They usually post the notes before class, which is really helpful, because I can print the notes out before class and then instead of worrying about writing everything down, I can focus on what the teacher is discussing outside of what she/he is writing on the board (or what's written on the power points he/she is showing). It's very helpful.

OP - if her school and classes/professors allow it, maybe she would prefer to take a laptop to class for note taking purposes. I started off trying to write stuff down by hand, and since I'm a slow writer it ended up being so time-consuming to get everything written down that I was never paying attention to what the teacher was actually saying outside of what was on the board. I started bringing my laptop to the classes where professors allow it (not all do, but I would say that in about 90% of my classes so far at my university, professors allow laptops) to take notes, and it has helped tremendously. I can type really quickly, so I can take notes and listen at the same time. That being said, I am a VERY visual learner so I have to have notes to study for tests from - I can't just sit in class, listen, and remember it come test time.

The only thing is that it takes some self-control to not look at social media or online shop or do whatever else on your laptop during class.

[KDCat]

The Cornell note taking system was recommended to me and I use something like it. It's really helpful.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornell_Notes

http://lsc.cornell.edu/LSC_Resources/cornellsystem.pdf

The cues column on the left side can be anything to help remember.

I also make up dumb sayings and mnemonics.
For example, if I need to remember that the symbol for the element tungsten is "W," I tell myself that Tungsten is weird." (Its symbol doesn't include the first letter of its name.) If I need to remember that the symbol for tin is "Sn," I tell myself "Tin is a sin."

[kiteflyersmom]

Thank you all for the input. I'm going to suggest the Cornell notes to my D and see how it goes. MaconMagnolia- you hit it on the head. Her first high school required Macbooks and her current high school requires Ipads. Notes were easier on the MacBook- but both present the Facebook/Twitter temptation,. These kids are too much- they somehow work around the school's block of these websites. It has gotten better- she used to Tweet much more than she does now. I should know- I am her number one stalker.

[IUHoosiergirl88]

In high school, it's going to be hard to experiment with various types of note-taking styles--but in college, I'd really recommend trying different things based on the professor. In my science-based classes, all my professors provided powerpoint lecture slides, which made it easier to focus on the professor, draw pictures, etc. But in my history/political science classes, it was much more discussion based and more likely that i'd be taking notes on what they actually say. It was also much more likely that those professors would ban laptops/cell phones, so you had to be quick on the notes.

I would definitely recommend more thorough notes if the professor has open note exams, which many of my social science professors did (since notes were less helpful on essay-based exams)

[adpiucf]

Have you talked with her guidance counselor?