it's time to talk about an age-old topic
taking notes all of us take notes but
few of us know how to do it properly
until my last year of university I
didn't know how to take notes properly
can you imagine that 15 years of taking
notes and I still wasn't any good how
many times have you walked out of a
lecture and realized that you have no
idea what you've just heard do you ever
think to yourself there must be a better
way to take notes if you do you're in
for a treat
in this video I attempt to provide you
with a solution for taking the best
notes possible students usually suffer
from at least one of three note-taking
problems they are taking those passively
they're distracted in lectures or they
have not mentally primed for the lecture
I'll explore each of these topics in
more detail so what do I mean by taking
notes passively the main form of passive
note-taking is writing down every single
word the teacher says without giving it
any thought the next time you're in a
lecture just take a look around the room
you'll see that 95 percent of students
are mindlessly writing down every word
the professor says when I was in
university I would sometimes feel guilty
if I was not constantly taking notes
everyone was doing it so must be the
right thing to do right there's almost
as hivemind behavior with note-taking
let me say this taking good notes is
hard work you have to actively be
thinking and listening most students
don't want to put this hard work in so
the default - the easier task of writing
down everything yet understanding
nothing problem number two is being
distracted in lectures students often
have trouble focusing lectures because
of the two FS Facebook and Friends
Facebook is more or less a metaphor for
social media texting and technology when
a student doesn't give their undivided
attention to taking notes which is hard
work remember they end up taking bad
notes sitting near friends is usually
not a good idea because they constantly
shift our attention to conversations
that are more interesting in the moment
in most lectures i sat separate from my
friends I'm someone who really likes to
separate my work from my play I don't
like to do activities where there is a
grey area for example when I sit near my
friends I have to constantly shift my
tension between what they are talking
about and what is going on in the
lecture I'd much rather focus harder
sure and then go really deep into other
conversations during my break besides
good friends don't care if you don't
talk to them during the lecture and it
gives them a chance to focus better as
well problem number three is not being
mentally primed the average person needs
to see something a few times before it
really sticks in their head most
students come to the lectures unprepared
and therefore I'm primed since they have
no prior knowledge of the topic the
lecture is the first time they're
hearing about it naturally you're not
going to learn very much if it's your
first time hearing about a difficult
topic so now let's go over how to take
good notes the note-taking method I
recommend is the Cornell method put the
page up into three sections main ideas
summary and notes this message is going
to help you clearly organize your
thoughts in the lecture more importantly
it promotes active learning taking notes
is art when we're sitting in a lecture
we often have to choose between
listening to the professor's words or
writing stuff down this can easily feel
overwhelming as a result most students
immediately default to rewriting
everything the professor says so that
they can review it later in my opinion
this is a huge waste of time after
writing the notes will have to spend
time understanding them later because we
are not being active learners in class
on top of that when we're going over our
notes we might have some questions about
the topic and run into things we don't
understand now we have to email our
professors or go meter during office
hours in order to clear up any
misunderstandings when we write down
everything the professor says we become
superficially focused on what they're
saying and forgo any kind of
understanding instead it's better to
listen for understanding in the first
place get into the habit of mentally
trying to reteach yourself what the
teacher is saying think to yourself how
would I explain this to someone else as
the lecture progresses this is commonly
referred to as the Fineman technique so
as I said before most people need to see
something a few times before they truly
understand it coming into a lecture
having never seen the material before is
doing yourself a huge disservice I know
what you're thinking I don't have time
to read a whole chapter on the topic
from the textbook I understand I was a
student once too here's a practical hack
to mentally prime yourself without
having to do any heavy reading most
professors are going to hand out a
syllabus early in the semester
that outlines what topics they are going
to talk about on any given day if you
know what the topic is going to be in
the next lecture and you should look
that topic up in your textbook next I
want you to start a Cornell notes page
go through each of the headings in your
textbook for that topic and write them
down in the main idea section of your
Cornell notes page now you have a rough
idea of what the teacher is going to
talk about if you want to take it a step
further look up YouTube videos on each
of those headings before you go to sleep
this will allow you to get a general
overview of the topic when you go to the
lecture you'll have a rough idea of what
topics are going to be talked about and
you will have encountered some of that
information already this greatly
increases your ability to understand
what's going on in a lecture now a
commonly asked question is should my
notes be clean and organized or should I
rewrite my notes on my computer and my
opinion never sacrifice speed for
cleanliness and organization the Cornell
notes method is already fairly organized
I used to worry about making my notes
pretty I use highlighters and different
colors for graphs and examples honestly
it was a huge waste of time the final
destination for the information is in
our brains not our notes
I'll make the writing neat enough to
read later and organized enough to
follow after the semester it's unlikely
that we're ever going to look at these
notes again rewriting notes is another
huge waste of time more often than not
it's another form of passive learning to
focus on applying and understanding the
information rather than rewriting it or
making it neater again the final
destination is your brain at the end of
each lecture I would take ten minutes to
summarize and reteach the main points of
what I just learned using simple
language in conclusion focus on being an
active learner in class and being
mentally primed use the Cornell notes
method to take better notes if you have
any questions at the end of the lecture
make sure to ask your professor right
away and that's all for this video
what note-taking system do you use let
me know in the comments thanks for
watching and I'll see you next time
I just sit back and let go
I'd rather do window alone