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There’s an array of note taking tips videos in this channel and they cover a *lot*, from the basics of note taking to the specificities between handwritten and typed notes, color coding methods and organization tools for notes. However, none of these videos elaborate on advanced note taking methods used by top performing students to go above and beyond what regular note taking tips are like. So today we’re going to cover advice for 5 different things you can start doing today to revamp your notes.
**[Text expander programs]**
Text expander programs let you insert commonly used phrases and other text using shortcuts so you don't have to type the same things over and over again. If you opt for typing your notes, using this software allows you to save a lot of time during class and the less you're worried about writing, the more time you can dedicate to actually listen to the lecture. Text expanding works with different mechanisms.
[**Mastering the *right* keyboard shortcuts]**
Mastering keyboard shortcuts goes beyond copying and pasting text quickly or formatting your text in bold; you can assign shortcuts to quickly highlight text, find parts of your notes, copying and pasting formatting, minimizing windows, selecting all text, thesaurus lookup, etc.
I have created a simple table with my favorite keyboard shortcuts for taking notes, both for Windows and MacOs, which I will link down below.
[**Actively avoid verbatim]**
Verbatim can be as useless as actually skipping your lectures. When students take verbatim notes, they are writing down everything as they hear it and in no particular format, structure or clear understanding of the contents of the lecture. It's particularly easy to turn off your brain and let your hands do the rest and just type out the lecture without making any particular connection between what you are hearing and what you actually know *or don't know* about the subject at hand. Actively avoiding verbatim means you are not writing as you hear, but you're waiting for a line of thought, sentence or topic to be finished and then summarize, in your own words, what you actually learned about that part of the lecture. This can be further improved by using a —
**[Question/evidence/conclusion format],** which Cal Newport also covers extensively in "How to Become a Straight-A Student".
**The main purpose of this system is to structure all of your lectures into question, evidence and conclusion formats that you can then compile into one improved guide. Besides reducing the amount of unnecessary information transcribed into your notes, the Q/E/C system creates a clear and obvious interrelation between topic, conclusion and the stream of facts and arguments that connect the two. Furthermore, this note-taking system, by being a corollary of avoiding verbatim, is two-in-one, since, besides helping you organize information while you are reading or attending your lectures, you’re also creating valuable study materials to use during revision.
**[Format aggressively]**
This tip may work better for people who take digital notes, but formatting your notes aggressively can also work for students who prefer a handwritten format. According to Cal Newport "t***he basic rule to follow is that anything that makes the information easier to read is fair game***" which means that writing in caps, underlining and formatting in bold, even when it's not formally correct, should all be allowed if it means that you are improving retention of the information at hand. For pen and paper, underlining, indentations, drawing boxes around ideas and using bullet points will also help you structure the information.
Pretty notes are not necessarily good notes. Most of the time what we value as correct structure, phrasing and formal syntax are things that hinder our progress while retaining information. Through major simplification and using heavy formatting as visual aids you are able to simplify the whole revision process whenever you need to use those notes for study purposes.
To see a major improvement in your note taking skills you should start by improving yours tools and practicing more efficient note-taking. This can be done by mastering the right keyboard shortcuts and trying out text expander programs that facilitate the job of typing repeated information or long phrases. With the right tools at your fingertips you should now be ready to listen to your lectures and actively avoid taking verbatim notes and opt for a different format, like the question_slash_evidence_slash_conclusion system. Finally, by heavily formatting these notes during and after your class and avoiding formalities that hinder your learning progress, you are able to maximize information retention and excel in your class.
FTC: This video is sponsored by CuriosityStream.
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