How to “Take Notes” to acquire more knowledge

Taking notes is the selective extraction of relevant, important and main point from either a reading material or lecture section by putting them down coherently on piece of paper.

Personally, I believe taking notes is very much important when learning, As a teacher/lecturer It shows a sign of seriousness and concentration of your students when you see them taking notes in your lecture. It even gives the
teacher/lecturer a kind of encouragement and motivation to keep on teaching.

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Types of Note-taking:

• Linear note-taking: This type of note-taking is done by outlining your notes down a page by using headings and bullets to input your information.

• Non-linear note-taking: Also known as “flexible note-taking” this is the most used type of note-taking by students simply because it variates.
  There are many types that falls under this method this includes:Concept mapping ,
  Cornell system , Sentence Method , Clustering ,SQ3R .

• Electronic note-taking: Also called “Smart note-taking” ,This is the modern age type of note-taking by using laptops, tablets and various smart devices for taking notes. This makes note-taking much easier for students but it also has it own disadvantage mainly because they can be easily distracted with the device popups and notifications.

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Why Should You “Take Notes” in the First Place?

• To get the main idea and detailed information about a particular subject matter.

• To reframe words to your own words of understanding in a unified form which help for quick recall.

• Taking notes makes you think outside the box I.e it makes you think beyond what your teacher/lecturer is even saying.

• To make your own additional research and get facts right

• To make reference to when doing your personal studying

• Proper note taking always make you ask the right questions

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Steps of follow when taking-notes:

• Get relevant materials ready like notepads, Pen e.t.c

• Always write your points in a logical and coherent manner

• Write your first draft using only one side of your sheet

• Read over to correct obvious errors in your notes

• Compare and contrast if using a book or material.

• Finally, ask questions when you seem lost.

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Strategies of Improving your note-taking Skills:

• Raise your mental alertness

• Kill all distractions in your surroundings

• Look, read and listen with understanding

• Watch out for main points and ideas

• Look for linking words to make you recall quickly

• Always ask questions after lectures/class.

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Additional Information:

It as even been proven that students who write out their notes by hand actually learn more than those to type their notes on laptops
This study was carried by Pam Mueller and Daniel Oppenheimer of Princeton University and UCLA Los Angeles respectively. It would let you know how taking notes is relatively important when on a quest for knowledge.

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