3 Tips For Taking Better Study Notes

Taking effective notes during classes and lectures is key to learning and progression. It’s important to get involved with the class through interactive experiences, but it’s also important to have extensive notes that can be easily reviewed and make sense of when it comes to studying. 

However, many students can struggle with extensive notetaking. With a high amount of information being given to them, they may find it difficult to keep up, write descriptive notes, or even to stay organized. If you are looking for ways to take better study notes, here are three tips that could help you.

Find Their Best Notetaking Style

Just like students can learn best in different ways, such as being visual or aural learners, the same applies to effective notetaking. All students will have their own preferred methods of notetaking – they just have to find it. You might prefer writing in bullet points, writing shorthand, or even through diagrams.  This is also a huge help when the time comes to revise.   

Take Advantage of Transcription Services

One of the problems with doing interactive learning online is that it isn’t always as easy for students to write down notes. However, if you start making use of transcription, this will be a boon. It allows you to read and have access to a written account of the lecture, which you can peruse more easily. This is also a must for students who may have accessibility requirements – allowing equal opportunities for everyone. You can find transcription and captioning services like Verbit that are there to help support universities and eLearning businesses to provide this for their students. 

Help them Ace Organization

Successful notetaking and revision from notes will depend a lot on your abilities to keep organized. After all, a pile of notes with no clear system will be difficult to understand and put in order. The more organized, the more successful you will be in notetaking. 

Why not try notebooks that have dividers in them or labels to properly label books? Use whatever medium works for you, whether this is a tablet or a laptop or even a dictaphone. Some students can type a lot faster than they can handwrite. 

As a final thought: there is no right or wrong way to take notes in your classes. However, by taking on board all of the above, you can certainly make note taking easier.