High school students are often expected to have a multitude of skills apart from excelling at academics. One such skill which is required for a student to excel in their academic journey is note taking. Not only does good note taking skills help a student with recalling and retaining information, but it also helps students to develop a sense of conceptual understanding with the material and is an important professional skill.
Note taking helps students improve their focus, pay attention to details, organise and comprehend information.
However, most students do not understand how to take notes effectively. Many students either copy the entire material or do not take notes at all. The process of note making should be simple and effective. There are various methods of note making such as, free style, question and answer, sketch noting and web making, which suit different learners.
One of the methods of note taking is, “Cornell Method”. In this method, the student is required to split the page into three sections: Notes,Cues and Summary. This method improves the readability of the notes and helps the student to engage actively during revisions.
Mind maps and outlines are also a great way to organise information visually. This will act as an aid for visual learners.
Being an active listener is an important skill involved in note making,participating in discussions can help in making more detailed notes. Colour coding by assigning certain colours for different parts of the notes like definitions,theory and important facts can also be useful while revising. It's important to also note that the notes made should be concise and do not need to be elaborate.
Efforts in making the notes aesthetic or overly colourful should also be minimised as the main purpose of notes is for the student to not forget the concepts after the class and to serve as a material for short and quick revision of concepts . Highlighting important concepts may also help students identify important points later on.
Notes should be reviewed regularly to ensure that students do not forget concepts. Notes taken during a class should be summarised later. Consolidating the information into crisp points can aid in exam preparation
While there are multiple ways to take notes, students must evaluate the method which suits them best and adopt them to suit their preparation style.
By
Ms Vijayalakshmi Rangarajan
Vice-Principal
