Things to note - the art of learning

Things to note...

One thing that is consistent for all most all professional qualifications students is the desire to take notes through study. Along with question practice and the inevitable reading, note taking is one of the key tenements of engaging with a subject or syllabus.

Given that this is the case, it’s surprising just how many people are ineffective at note taking – for some we can trace it back to bad habits at school and college.

Here’s the problem – we want to work ‘hard’ and copying large swathes of text out in our own handwriting is hard work so we feel like we are doing the right thing.

Ultimately, though, this process does not require us to engage with or understand the material; it is simply recreation of the content. In addition to this, we end up with notes of a similar length to the study text and that makes revision awkward and long.

Here’s a few tips for getting note taking right –

• Firstly, make sure you have read through the chapter or module in full, so you know what the key information is and you have a framework to hang that information on
• Secondly, force yourself to never use an A4 notepad in portrait – use it in landscape or use differing size note pads: this will help you capture your notes creatively. On that subject…
• Thirdly, get creative! Use diagrams, mnemonics, acronyms, mind maps etc. There are three positives to this..
• Gimmicks, tricks, humour etc are all fair more memorable than long swathes of prose
• You will have engaging visual material to interact with – pin these up where you’ll see them often
• The process of creating these materials requires you to engage with and synthesise the learning concepts – it’s as powerful as using questions in your study!
• Finally, when you are making notes, use your language and voice – it’s much more powerful that recreating someone else’s

The above are just a collection of hints that may work for you – there are no rules. As long as it works for you, be as creative as you like…. It’s your study after all!

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