Smarter Notes: 9 Steps to Highly Effective Study Notes
Not Available / Digital Item
Smarter Notes: 9 Steps to Highly Effective Study Notes
Does taking notes feel like herding cats?
It did to me.
I was THAT guy. You know the one. The guy frantically trying to write down every single little thing the professor said. I was absolutely terrified of missing even the smallest thing.
What if it was on the test?
What if I needed it for a paper?
What if there was a pop quiz?
What if I was studying and couldn't remember something?
I was that guy. And to me, every class period felt like a desperate attempt to write down everything I was hearing instead of anything even remotely close to learning.
I literally felt like I was a court reporter trying frantically to organize all the facts as they were being thrown at me 100mph. And it was very, very stressful (not to mention a great way to get early onset carpal tunnel syndrome).
It wasn€t until much later that I realized something: I wasn€t taking notes. I was transcribing my classes.
And let me tell you€¦ when you€re preparing for a test, having a great, organized set of notes is much, much more useful than having dozens of pages of transcribed lectures€"by an order of magnitude.
So, I set out to do what I did with every area of my study habits around that time: develop a great system.
And honestly, it wasn€t that easy. I knew how to write papers pretty well. And I could read okay. But taking notes was a totally different beast. There are just so many skills involved: listening, organizing mental information, memory, speed-writing, asking good question, and quite a few more.
So it took me a while. In the end, though, I landed on a set of techniques that helped me take ultra-efficient notes and drastically increase my grades.
Later, when I was actually TEACHING college classes, I passed these same techniques along to my students (which, by the way, was when I really figured out that taking notes was a major pain point for a lot of people).
So, I figured it€d be a good subject for a book, which is what you€re looking at now.
Here€s what you€ll learn€¦
All about the Great Note-Taking Myth and why it€s a load of crap
How to leverage the 5 most popular note-taking systems
How to deploy memory hacks to your advantage
How to tailor your notes to your specific learning style
How to properly execute pre-note preparation strategies
How to actually put that pen to paper and knock out some great notes
How to review your notes and what exactly to look for when you do