Tom Mellish OP Contributor © page 10 You have probably had many an occasion to sit in on a lecture and record an instructor's notes. Via the overhead projector, you are pre- sented with the bare bones, abbreviated, and in point form or a solid, colossal mass of text. In frenzy, you copy down everything that the instructor writes. Lost in the illumination, lag- ging behind, you find yourself desperately try- ing to catch up. After taking notes, you usually avoid them for a month or so. When midterms or finals roll around, the mess comes out, and you stare at it blankly. Blowing off the dust and cob- webs, you review your notes. You discover that you have retained nothing. Reading your notes is like encountering some shorthand account of a car crash. You have absolutely no connection to your scrawl, no idea what to do with the notes other than using them as offer- ings to the ancient gods of education. Sound familiar? There are a number of note-taking styles out there, but none of them involve passive osmo- sis through the brain sieve. To take useful notes, you have to listen carefully for where the main points are extrapolated, and must review the lecture after class. Toss out the old way if it doesn’t work—hook up with a new style. Prepare for each lecture by pre-reading and re-reading the assigned material , text, chap- ters, and notes to obtain a basic background. Think ahead; anticipate what is going to be said. Avoid distractions like noisy students, open windows, etc. Sit where you can hear and see clearly, towards the front of the class- room, and do not read or talk. This will help to create a good impression, eliminate distrac- tions, etc. If you are bored during class, review previous class notes. All these things will help you keep up with the material, and be a posi- tive, active learner. Attend all lectures, even if attendance is not mandatory. Using someone else’s notes can help, but it is no substitute for attending the lecture. When you hear the information, process it, and write it in your notes, you are already beginning to learn the information. Reinforcement of the information through review of your notes completes the learning process. Think about ways to relate ideas from previ- ous lectures to the textbook and to previous experiences. Listen for “what” is being said, not how it’s being said. Do not try to write everything down. Be ready to participate. Look for vocal, postural, and visual cues indi- cating what the professor considers important. Pay particular attention after the first 20 min- ites, when attention wanes, and to the final part of the lecture when a summary or a con- clusion might be given. During the lecture, put a heading and a date on your notes for each day. This will assist you with cross-referencing concepts, and just to keep it in order. Try not to take notes in para- graph form. It is difficult to find important parts when you are studying for a test. Use general ideas, not illustrative ideas. Skip lines to show ends of ideas or thoughts. Using abbreviations will increase your note-taking speed. Write legibly. Take notes in lists or “one-liners” as much as possible. Use symbols and images to help you to remember informa- tion more effectively than words. Mark your notes with checks, stars, question marks, cir- cling dates and names, to bring out the impor- tant facts. Use colour to separate different ideas and show the organization of the subject. There are a number of styles of note-taking. Here are three: the Roman, the Two Column, and the Cluster. The linear, concrete Roman style is a hierar- chical system that organizes information through Roman numerals, letters, and num- bers. Roman numerals stand for a main topic. Letters represent a sub-topic. Numerals stand for details. So the pattern would follow as: I, A, 1. Each symbol gets its own line and they follow one another in descending order, allow- ing one to organize the lecture from the gen- eral to the more specific. This is often the one type of note-taking that may be taught in schools or in books. The Two-Column style is simple. Get a steno pad or two-column notepaper, or divide standard paper into two columns. The left col- umn will hold the actual notes during class. The right column is for after class review of sub-themes, specific details, and any other thoughts that come to mind, broad concepts, events, or themes—often single words and main points—key words or phrases can be written in the recall column. And most impor- tantly, questions based on the lecture’s infor- mation. The Cluster style is excellent for those spa- tially, or visually inclined. In the middle of your page, start by writing the title or main theme of the lecture and draw a circle around it. Let your mind go with the class. A com- plete Cluster may have main topic lines radi- ating in all directions from the centre. Sub- topics and facts will branch off these, like branches and twigs from the trunk of a tree. Use single words or simple phrases for infor- mation. You don’t need to worry about the structure produced—this will evolve of its own accord. After the lecture, go over lecture notes with- in 24 hours of writing them down. Spend 10 minutes for every lecture. You lose 50-80% of the material if you don’t review within the day. In your review, seek answers to questions that arise. Summarize each main idea complete sentences. Read through your note and make them more legible if necessary. Write key words, phrases or questions that serve as cues for notes taken in class—cue phrases and questions should be in your own words. Jot down ideas or key words that give you the idea of the lecture. Cover up the left- hand portion of your notes and say aloud the general ideas and concepts of the lecture. Read each key word or question; recite the facts or idea brought to mind by a key word or ques- tion. Review your notes periodically by reciting, and mulling over what you have learned. Apparently lectures themselves are in a structured classical essay format. I’ve never noticed the structure before. The parts of a lecture are, as any English student knows: the Introduction, or opening remarks, which set the tone of the session; the Thesis sentence or statement that gives you the topic for the rest of the hour; the Body, which is the largest part of the lecture and demands the most listening with five or six main points to be made with discussion and clarification of each; and final- ly the Summary, which contains the crux of what the lecture was all about in the first place. So, as you listen, it may help to categorize the lecture as though it were an essay. It should have an introduction, a body, and a summary. The next time you take notes in the future, remember the three steps to making them an effective process. Start by building a back- ground through reading that will increase the chances of the lecture making sense to you. Set up your note page with a style or system, so that later you can capture the complete ideas of the speaker. Include all examples, drawings, terms, and definitions. Review your notes, and turn the content into test-like questions.