More on How to Become a Straight-A Student. This section is about how to excel on quizzes and exams. The first step is taking smart notes. Here are some key highlights from the book about taking notes!
Always go to class! If you skip class, it will take twice as long studying to make up for what you missed. So, ultimately, it saves you time when you attend all classes.
Gather the right materials. Newport recommends using a laptop to take notes, especially for non-technical courses. I’m not 100% sold on that, but I’ll keep an open mind. The materials needed are a separate notebook for each class (unless you are using a laptop), a folder for each class, and a writing utensil. You don’t need a complicated system of colored pens, special notebooks and organized class binders. According to Anna, a straight-A student from Dartmouth, “A lot of students focus on making their notebooks look pretty and then forget about the content.” So, just have notes on a laptop (or spiral notebook – one for each class) and a folder (one for each class) to contain loose papers and you are in good shape.
Always date your notes and record the title of the lecture if it’s available. When taking notes, use any formatting method that works for you: bold, underline, all caps, asterisks, leaving large spaces between lines… Whatever makes it easiest for you to read.
For nontechnical courses, identify the big ideas.Exams in these courses focus on big ideas. You are required to explain them, contrast them and reevaluate them based on new evidence. It’s much easier to do this when you are aware of the big ideas.
Capture big ideas by using Question/Evidence/Conclusion structure. Nontechnical professors teach big ideas using this structure. They offer up questions and then walk you through various pieces of evidence toward a conclusion. So, write out these three headings: question, evidence, conclusion as you are taking notes. The question may not be articulated first, or perhaps not at all. The professor may start right into the evidence. But leave space at the top for the question, and later you can go back and fill it in. Even if the question and conclusion are not stated outright, come up with your best guess for both. Thinking of the lectures in this way will help you make more sense of the material and you will absorb it more easily. By simply attempting to associate all information with a question and conclusion, you are a big step ahead of your fellow classmates. It will take some practice, but you will get better at formulating questions and summarizing conclusions. Don’t be afraid to ask questions to help figure out if your conclusions are correct or not (either during class or later during office hours).
The number of questions presented can vary widely. The professor may spend an entire class discussing one big idea, or he/she may discuss several different ideas in one lecture. Either way, make sure to break each big idea into the question/evidence/conclusion format.
If you aren’t rushed after class, spend five minutes reviewing your notes before packing up. Doris from Harvard says, “It’s important to read over your notes right after class to absorb them and make corrections and additions; otherwise you’ll be susceptible to entirely forgetting what was covered that day.” This will save a great deal of time and effort when reviewing for the test.
Class discussions are an exception to this note-taking rule. In this case, clearly label the topic of discussion and then write down any insightful points made by fellow-students. And ALWAYS write down any points the professor makes.
That’s about it for now! Next topic will cover how to take smart notes in technical courses.
Mom in the Middle 