By Shu Patel/reporter
All students are different in what type of note-taking strategy works best for them. Nonetheless, they should create a strategy that works best to succeed in college, the SE director of library services told students Sept. 11.
Jotisa Klemm’s Help! My Notes Are a Joke involved students learning different strategies and types of note taking.
Among the methods mentioned were the Cornell and think link styles. The Cornell style of note taking has a sheet of notebook paper sectioned off for different reasons such as writing an outline or writing key information followed by a summary on the bottom. This type of style is useful for lectures where students may not have enough time to write down every detail and can be very versatile, Klemm said.
Think link is “not quite as useful” as it is not as versatile as the Cornell style, she said. Think link is a style meant for discussion classes involving concepts and is based off a spider web design. The student would begin with writing and circling the main topic in the middle, followed by drawing lines to subtopics. Those subtopics have lines from them to show different points in a class discussion or details of a topic.
“Both styles of note taking are useful in their own way, and it’s up to the student to decide if this or another strategy works best for them,” she said.
Klemm mentioned two major rules to follow when taking notes in a class. Rule one is to always take notes for a class to help prepare for quizzes and exams. Rule two is to never write down everything shown on a PowerPoint presentation by a professor in the class.
“There is no need to write down what is already written as most of the times the presentations are provided by the professor on Blackboard,” she said.
To keep up with the professor’s lecture, students should also use symbols and abbreviations to shorten words or phrases such as changing “because” to “b/c.”
Klemm said students should also create a “first and final notes” way of note taking to help with remembering information.
Students would have a rough draft of notes taken from class with abbreviations, symbols and other marks. Then within 24 hours, the student should transcribe the notes to a final neat version, she said.
Klemm concluded the seminar by speaking about blogging, which can help students who are in a group as well as fellow classmates. Students can go to Blogger, a free website, and create a blog for a class and share notes.
“Students can even choose who can view the blog through privacy settings,” she said.
Blogging is just another strategy and style of note taking that organizes students’ thoughts and ideas and is something students should think about using, Klemm said.
