Hi guys
Today, I'll be showing you how I take notes for AP European history from my AP euro textbook.
So the first thing I do is copy down the page numbers that I was assigned by my teacher and the date.
Then I write down the title of the section.
Normally an assignment will have multiple sections, so I'll write multiple titles, but this time i have just one.
Next I fold my binder paper to make a fairly large margin on the left side it's about two to three inches wide.
Basically it goes from the edge of the paper to the margin that shows through from the other side.
Then I copied down the essential question which is also given by the textbook and I highlight this question in purple.
My note-taking process is that I put headers and questions in the left-hand margin.
And then I write down the information in bullet points on the right side
The way I write these bullet points is by summarizing one paragraph into one bullet point
The way I get this to fit and to still capture all the information
Is to boil down all the information into just one key idea.
And I use a lot of symbols and abbreviations
So I don't have to write that many words
if you find this difficult, don't worry your skills at summarizing will improve with practice.
I use a highlighting color code that my teacher requires us to use, but I do really like this color code
So we highlight blue for information that answers the essential question.
Green for information that corresponds to the AP course framework.
Yellow for vocabulary words that are bolded in the textbook and pink for questions that we have about the information.
By the way, I really love these highlighters that I'm using they are the Zebra Cura Rich glitter highlighters
They're so glittery. They're the most extra thing i've ever seen, but it's just so much more fun to take notes when the notes glitter.
You're probably noticing a lot of pauses in between when I write and
that's because I spend most of my note-taking time actually on
reading the text and then thinking about what's most important so I can summarize it into one bullet point.
Since the title of this video is about how to take history notes
I'm assuming that all of you guys watching are taking a history course right now
So I'm curious which class are you guys taking and if anyone is taking AP euro along with me
Or if you took AP Euro in the past
It'd be great if you could comment with some advice for all of our current AP European history scholars
as of when I'm filming this I only have a week or so until I have my unit to exam / winter final.
So wish me luck. Hopefully this video will go up before the test that way I can use your tips and your good wishes.
But we'll see because I'm pre filming a lot of videos for finals.
So the last thing I do is write a summary which enters the essential question
but if your textbook doesn't have an essential question just a summary will do.
I answer the question as if I were answering a short answer question on the AP exam that way I can practice doing that
I hope you found this video helpful
and be sure to check out my Tumblr and Instagram which are linked in the description for more pictures of my notes.
I upload new videos every Monday and Friday
See you next time.