A. Why take notes?

1. To help you retain material
2. To sustain your attention in class
3. To engage you actively in the class
4. To force you to think about the lecture content
5. To provide material to review as you prepare for a test
6. To point out the strengths and weaknesses of your listening skills

        B. Techniques to increase note-taking efficiency

1. Learn how your professors communicate to you that something is important.

a. Repeat it.
b. Stop pacing.
c. Make eye contact.
d. Give examples of it.
e. Write it on the board.
f. Make dramatic gestures.
g. Change their tone of voice.
h. Say "in summary" or "in conclusion."
i. Give you time to write it in your notes.
j. Follow it with a period of dramatic silence.
k. Include it in their introduction to a lecture.

2. Try hard to understand the organizational structure of lectures.

a. Pay close attention during introductions and summaries.
b. Use the outline method of note-taking whenever possible.

3. Develop a "speed hand."

a. Use abbreviations.
b. Keep a list of your abbreviations and their meanings.

4. Date your notes.

a. This helps to keep them in order if you remove pages from your notebook.
b.    Dating pages makes it easier for professors to answer your questions if you can tell them the date of the lectur

.

C. Six principles of efficient note-taking

1. Be flexible; adapt your note-taking style to different lecturing styles.

2. Once you select a successful style, stay with it.

3. Schedule a time as soon after class as possible to review your notes.

4. Take no more notes than are necessary for complete understanding.

5. Use your "speed hand" whenever possible.

6. Your notes should be immediately clear when you re-read them; if they are not, ask a reliable fellow student or your professor for clarification as soon as possible.

D. Conclusions and advice about taking notes

1. You will not attend to, understand, or retain lecture material if you approach lectures in a passive manner. Therefore: Do not attend class just so that your professor doesn't count you absent. Go to class prepared to actively learn the material that will be given in the lecture.

2. People learn best and retain the most when they experience new material in a number of ways (e.g., by seeing it, hearing it, thinking about it, and doing it). Therefore: Pay close attention to what your professor does and says during lectures, try your best to understand the organization of the lecture, and take notes that are as simple but as complete as possible.

3. The vast majority of information is forgotten very quickly if it is not practiced. If it is practiced on several occasions, it is much less likely to be forgotten. Therefore: It is very important to re-read your notes as soon as possible after a class and to review them several times before a test.

4. The more familiar you are with a person who is speaking to you, the more able you are to interpret his or her message. Therefore: Do your best to pick up the subtle, and sometimes not so subtle, cues that you professors give during their lectures that indicate that they are talking about something they consider important enough to be asked on a test.

5. People understand and retain organized material far better than material that is unorganized. Therefore: Work hard to understand the organizational structure of a lecture as you hear it. This will be harder during some lectures than others, but it is extremely important that you do it in all lectures.

6. The information that your professor presents in lectures is as important as the material from your textbook. Therefore: Study your lecture notes as carefully as you study the textbook (e.g., highlight main ideas, make up possible test questions from them, and review them immediately before a test).