Taking notes on lectures is an easy way to learn more, faster and with less effort. But only if you do it the right way, keep reading!
Why take notes? First, it makes you active at the lecture because it forces you to focus and to keep up with what is being said. An awake and alert brain learns better and writing reduces the risk for wandering of into other thoughts and daydreams.
When you write, you also take in information with another sense, in addition to sight and hearing, namely your motor memory. This allows you to absorb the knowledge better and you might also remember more from the lecture afterwards.
You will soon realize that lectures can be a student's best friend. Why? Because it can save you a lot of time from reading heavy and dull course-literature. In the lecture, your teacher will address a few but carefully selected parts of the course, the most important ones (which is often what is being tested on the exam). By taking notes, you will soon have your own summary of everything important in the course. Surely it's like having everything served?
Be sure to ask questions! This is another significant difference to reading a book - your teacher can clarify and explain in many different ways. Maybe one of them suits you better and you get that aha-experience you've been looking for. Asking when you have the chance can save you a lot of time by not having to look for answers in your books. Asking questions also makes you reflect on your knowledge. But but if you're shy or for some other reason you don't want to raise your hand and ask out loud? Well, in that case even thinking a question for yourself will also help your learning.
There are many advanced techniques and different structures you can use for taking notes, but many being too complicated to work effectively in practice. Here are some simple tricks that will take you and your note-taking further.
Write down what seems important and write in a way that you understand (explain to yourself). It is often a good practice to take notes of what the teacher writes, but put extra emphasis on what is being said (orally), because you you can't look this up later on. This applies especially if the teacher uses PowerPoint or similar slides that you will have access to. Noting the slide then becomes useless and just steals attention (rather use the time for critical thinking, visualizing and so on) with exception maybe for titles or such just to add structure and making your notes easier to read.
A common mistake is to write too much and too nicely, almost as if you were making your own book. Instead, I advise you to write quickly so as not to let it take too much of your focus. Then you have time to think for yourself and can keep up with what is been said during the lecture. It doesn't matter if it gets ugly, as long as you can read your own handwriting. If it is enough using key words, you can absolutely go for it. Just make sure you can understand it later.
Taking notes is something you do to improve your own learning, it should be a support and not a burden.
Your personal comments is what turns your notes into gold. This is because you can reread your own thoughts from that time, allowing you to reflect deeper. Also this is a good place to write reminders to yourself, maybe about some special rule for certain occasions, common mistakes that your teacher has pointed out (in order to avoid them), quotes, and so on. Don't be overconfident and trust your memory with important information, as we forget more than we would like to acknowledge. In short, the margins are a good spot to write down all the little extra details.
You've just created your own perfect study-material with all the essentials and also personalized just for you. Now its easy for you to check what was done and said at a lecture. Perfect for studying for exams and daily revision.
“The best notes are the ones you actually read”