I'm a terrible note taker.

It's important to write information down if you want to remember what you have learned. Unfortunately, I barely take notes when I'm studying. I take just enough notes to end up passing the exam, but there are so many pages I read from a book and I hardly take notes at all. After taking notes for a few chapters, I just stop and read only. At the same time, I don't want to take too many notes by writing down unnecessary information. That would be a waste of time. Has anyone else experienced this problem? Is there any way to become a better note taker?

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Kinet1c

I'm not great at it myself but the great thing about IT (not all but most) is that there is a huge practical aspect to learning technologies. If you struggle with note taking, make more effort when doing labs.

Jon_Cisco

I have always been a good test taker. I usually got by fine without notes in the earlier part of my life so I am struggling with a similar problem.

My current method is to write notes on scrap paper that I usually just throw away. This has always worked for me because I believe the important part is having your mind interpret what is important enough to write down. This helps reinforce the information and aids in memory retention.

However as I am starting to study topics that will need to be recalled months later it seems much more important to keep and organize my notes. I have not figured that out yet but I think I might still use scraps but then transfer them to an outline format in a permanent notebook.

I have also begun using flash cards to write quick facts. question on one side answer on the back so I can flip through them without any structure.

In the end we need to figure out what works for us and just keep revising it.

Good Luck.

draught

I do the same the rest of you do. I write the notes and then throw them away once I pass a test/certification. In terms of long term organization I've also heard the way notes are done would have to be changed. My question though is do people that do extensive notes do that much better?

Flashcards can be useful if you have a ton of vocab that needs to be memorized.

DissonantData

draught wrote: »

I do the same the rest of you do. I write the notes and then throw them away once I pass a test/certification. In terms of long term organization I've also heard the way notes are done would have to be changed. My question though is do people that do extensive notes do that much better?

Flashcards can be useful if you have a ton of vocab that needs to be memorized.

From what I understand, taking too much notes is a waste of time. This is the reason that I have a hard time figuring out which notes I should take and which notes I should NOT take. I prefer to understand the format of the exam or have an idea of the exam questions so I can figure out which notes are important to take. Simply memorizing and regurgitating isn't going to give you critical thinking skills needed to do the job.

gorebrush

I find that most of my notes - I never read them again. I find that the process of writing them down is what helps me remember.

DevilWAH

my notes generally consist of the bits I don't know. So rather than as a reminder of some thing just end up as a list of things I need to study. I then take each point in tern and study it, review the list to see what I now know or dont know. Tick of what I do and restudy the bits I am still flaky on.

thats when I am reading text books. Most note taking takes place when Labbing, but its for the lab I am working on, so i might looks some thing up on the internet or in a text book, scribble down the bit I need and then run it through a lab. Once I have completed a exam the only record I keep is the text book and quick reference guide. All my scribbles go in to the bin.

paul78

I personally never take any notes when attempting to learn new subject matter. It's just not the way that I retain knowledge or learn. For me, it's more about touching or going through the motions of applying some subject matter before I can truly can say that I know something. In the past, when attempting to take notes, I find that I'm simply regurgitating what I was reading so it didn't seem to be efficient in my case.

That's just me - everyone has their own learning style. The trick is to find out what style works for you. Good luck.

Xyro

DissonantData wrote: »

... I have a hard time figuring out which notes I should take and which notes I should NOT take.

Generally, how I make that decision is while I am reading I ask myself, "Will I remember this in 2 or 3 days?". When the answer is no, I take it down. When the answer is yes, I leave it out. IMO, notes should simply jog your memory - not be backup for it.

DoubleNNs

I'm in the camp that takes a ton of notes. I know it's inefficient. I know it takes a lot of time. But too often I lose focus when reading and go into passive scanning, without actually committing most of the knowledge into memory. The act of writing down notes helps me focus as well as remember. Then, if needed, I can quickly do a quick skim-thru of the notes once before throwing them away.

When learning new material, it's hard to know what notes to take and what not to take. You don't fully know the context of everything, so it's hard to gauge what is important.

At the same time, to meet my 2014 goals I'm probably going to have to figure out a way to stream-line my studying process and retain the knowledge w/o spending so much time regurgitating the text onto another sheet of paper.