Taking Lecture and Class Notes

WEEK 7 – LESSON 7

Note Taking

Taking Lecture and Class Notes

In class, we are often presented with information that normally contains the main concepts of the course we are learning. This information will be most likely included in your exams. Therefore, it is very important that you take down notes during lecture in class. The notes can serve as an important tool to do revisions for exams as well as understanding key concepts. In order to take notes effectively, you will have to acquire good note taking skills. You need preparation and reflection to develop the skills. There are several ways to take notes and use them effectively. Most importantly, you need to develop a system that enables you to:

• review regularly
• recite (repeating key concepts)
• reflect (connecting class ideas to other notes and readings)

Five Important Reasons to Take Notes

1. It helps you to remember important information.
2. It helps you to concentrate in class.
3. It helps you prepare for tests or exams.
4. It provides you valuable clues for what information is the most important (i.e., what will be tested in the test).
5. It provides information that cannot be found elsewhere (i.e., in your textbook).

Evaluate Your Present Note-Taking System
By asking yourself the following questions, you will be able to evaluate your present note-taking skills. These questions will help to determine whether you need to develop new note-taking skills. If your answer is no to any of them, you definitely need to learn the ways.

Ask yourself:

1. Did I use complete sentences? Are they generally a waste of time?
2. Did I use any form at all? Are my notes clear or confusing?
3. Did I capture main points and all sub points?
4. Did I streamline using abbreviations and shortcuts?

Guidelines for Note-Taking

1. Concentrate on the lecture or on the reading materials.
2. Take notes consistently.
3. Take notes selectively. Do not try to write down every word. Remember that the average lecturer speaks approximately 125-140 words per minute, and the average note-taker writes at a rate of about 25 words per minute.
4. Translate ideas into your own words.
5. Organize notes into logical form.
6. Be brief. Write down only the major points and important information.
7. Write legibly. Notes are useless if you cannot read them later!
8. Don't be concerned with spelling and grammar.

Tips for Finding Major Points in Lectures
The speaker is usually making an important point if he or she:

1. Pauses before or after an idea.
2. Uses repetition to emphasize a point.
3. Uses introductory phrases to precede an important idea.
4. Writes an idea on the board.

Forms of Note-Taking

1. Outlining
   I. Topic sentence or main idea
   A. Major points providing information about topic
   1. Subpoint that describes the major point
   a. Supporting detail for the subpoint
2. Patterning: flowcharts, diagrams
3. Listing, margin notes, highlighting

Ways to Reduce and Streamline Notes

1. Eliminate small connecting words such as: is, are, was, were, a, an, the, would, this, of. Eliminate pronouns such as: they, these, this, that, them. However, be careful NOT to eliminate these three words: and, in, on.
2. Use symbols to abbreviate, such as:
   +, & for and, plus = for equals
   - for minus # for number
   x for times > for greater than, more, larger
   < for less than, smaller, fewer than w/ for with
   w/o for without w/in for within
   ----> for leads to, produces, results in <---- for comes from
   / for per
   For example:
   "The diameter of the Earth is four times greater than the diameter of the Moon."
   Becomes:
   "Earth = 4x > diameter of Moon."
3. Substitute numerals with symbols, for instance:
   Substitute "one" with 1
   Substitute "third" with 3rd
4. Abbreviate:
   Drop the last several letters of a word. For example, substitute "appropriate" with "approp."
   Drop some of the internal vowels of a word. For example, substitute "large" with "lrg."

Adapted from

Commonly Used Symbols and Abbreviations:

and
No. or # / number
= / equal to, is the same as
b/4 / before
ref. / reference
w/ / with
greater than
less than
i.e., / that is
vs. / versus, as opposed to
e.g., / for example
etc. / et cetera
Q. / question
b/c / because
w/o / without

Adapted from”*How to Succeed in College” by Gerow & Lyng and “Study Skills: A Student’s Guide for Survival” by Carman & Adams, Jr.

Tips for Note Taking Success

1. Don't expect to be perfect. No one ever takes down every word from a teacher's lecture, and you shouldn't even try to.
2. Keep your notes in a safe place.
3. Use composition notebooks instead of loose papers.
4. Maintain a notebook with dividers for each subject.
5. Try to identify test questions. Pay particular attention during the last 10 minutes of a lecture, and be sure to write down:
   a. the first and last things the teacher says;
   b. any idea the teacher repeats;
   c. any list, comparison, or superlative;
   d. any idea that is put on the board or appears on an overhead projector, smart board, etc.
   e. any idea the teacher spells out for emphasis;
   f. any idea the teacher gets excited about;
   g. any idea the teacher describes with unusual or distinctive expression; and
   h. any idea the teacher tells you to write down.
6. Develop and answer relevant who, what, when, where, why, and how questions using a two column note taking format.
7. Go over your notes with a partner to fill in any gaps in information.
8. After the lecture, summarise each lecture in 5-9 sentences, as soon as you can.
9. Add to your notes from memory, your reading, and a friend's notes.
10. Review your notes for every subject for at least 5 minutes every day.

Adapted from

Exercise 1

The information contained in the following passage lends itself to organization into tables. Read the passage and present the important information in a table.

A. Organization Practice: Tables

Rocks

/

Material

/

Place

/

Method

Igneous

/ magma / deep in earth / 1. ______

Sedimentary

/ 2. ______
______/ bottoms of bodies of water / pressure of layers, comes to surface with shifts of crust

3. ______

/ igneous or sedimentary rocks / 4.______/ undergoes heat and pressure

Sample of a Concept Map

Read the following passage on principles of classification, and then do a concept map -- from memory -- of everything you can remember of the passage.

B. Organization Practice: Mapping

Classification consists of placing together in categories those things that resemble each other. While this sounds simple, in actual practice it may be quite difficult. First of all, we have to decide what kind of similarities are the most important for our purpose. One of the earliest classification schemes placed in one category all those organisms which lived in the same habitat. Thus fish, whales, and penguins were classified as swimming creatures. This type of classification was often based on the principle that creatures possessing analogous organs should be classified together. Analogous organs are organs that have the same function. The fins of fishes and the flippers of whales and penguins are analogous organs because they are all used for swimming. The wings of birds, bats, and insects are analogous organs that make flying possible.

As more knowledge was gained about the anatomy of living things, it became apparent that similarities of habitat and of analogous organs were often rather superficial. The fact that bats have fur and nurse their young, birds have feathers and lay eggs, while insects are cold-blooded and have no internal skeleton suggested that these organisms differ from one another in more important ways than they resemble one another. An appreciation of the truly significant ways in which organisms resemble or differ from one another enabled the Swedish naturalist Carolus Linnaeus to find the modern system of classification. In 1753 he published a classification of the plants which was followed, in 1758, by a classification of the animals. For this work he is often called the father of taxonomy, the name given to the study of classification. His system of classification is fundamentally the system we use today. It is based on the principle of homology. Homologous organs are organs which show the same basic structure, the same general relationship to other organs, and the same pattern of very early growth. They need not, however, share the same function. An examination of the bones of the whale's flipper, the bat's wing, and man's arm reveals the same basic pattern (Fig.2-2). Furthermore, all these appendages are found in the same part of the body and develop in similar ways. They are homologous organs, although they are used to carry out quite different functions. Linnaeus felt that the difference in function was trivial, while the homology of the organs provided a sound basis for grouping these animals together. Why is classification based upon homology so significant? The answer to this question was not given until 1859 when Charles Darwin published his theory of evolution. According to Darwin, a classification based upon the presence of homologous organs is a classification based upon kinship. He felt that all creatures sharing homologous organs is a classification based upon kinship. He felt that all creatures sharing homologous organs are related to one another, having inherited their homologous organs from a common ancestor. Thus man, the bat, and the whale all had a single ancestor who possessed the basic forelimb structure that these creatures possess - although obviously in a quite modified form - today.

Now create a concept map of this material without referring to the passage. This will give you practice in remembering, and will show you exactly how much you know and do not know. It will also provide you with a solid basis for thinking critically about the topic.

An Example of a Concept Map

Exercise 2

Try organizing the material in the following passage. You may use a map or flowchart format.

C. Organization Practice: Sequential Diagram

The cattle tick is a small, flat-bodied, blood-sucking arachnid with a curious life history. It emerges from the egg not yet fully developed, lacking a pair of legs and sex organs. In this state it is still capable of attacking cold-blooded animals such as frogs and lizards, which it does. After shedding its skin several times, it acquires its missing organs, mates, and is then prepared to attack warm-blooded animals.

The eyeless female is directed to the tip of a twig on a bush by her photosensitive skin, and there she stays through darkness and light, through fair weather and foul, waiting for the moment that will fulfill her existence. In the Zoological Institute at Rostock, prior to World War I, ticks were kept on the end of twigs, waiting for this moment for a period of eighteen years. The metabolism of the creature is sluggish to the point of being suspended entirely. The sperm she received in the act of mating remains bundled into capsules where it, too, waits in suspension until mammalian blood reaches the stomach of the tick, at which time the capsules break, the sperm are released, and they fertilize the eggs which have been reposing in the ovary, also waiting a kind of time suspension.

The signal for which the tick waits is the scent of butyric acid, a substance present in the sweat of all mammals. This is the only experience that will trigger time into existence for the tick.

The tick represents, in the conduct of its life, a kind of apotheosis of subjective time perception. For a period as long as eighteen years nothing happens. The period passes as a single moment; but at any moment within this span of literally senseless existence, when the animal becomes aware of the scent of butyric acid it is trust into a perception of time, and other signals are suddenly perceived.

The animal then hurls itself in the direction of the scent. The object on which the tick lands at the end of this leap must be warm; a delicate sense of temperature is suddenly mobilized and so informs the creature. If the object is not warm, the tick will drop off and re-climb its perch. If it is warm, the tick burrows its head deeply into the skin and slowly pumps itself full of blood. Experiments made at Rostock with membranes filled with fluids other than blood proved that the tick lacks all sense of taste, and once the membrane is perforated the animal will drink any fluid, provided it is of the right temperature.

The extraordinary preparedness of this creature for that moment of time during which it will re-enact the purpose of its life contrasts strikingly with probability that this moment will ever occur. There are doubtless many bushes on which ticks perch, which are never bypassed by a mammal within range of the tick's leap. As do most animals, the tick lives in an absurdly unfavourable world -- at least so it would appear to the compassionate human observer. But this world is merely the environment of the animal. The world it perceives -- which experimenters at Rostock call its "umwelt," its perceptual world -- it not at all unfavourable. A period of eighteen years, as measured objectively by the tick. During this period, it is apparently unaware of temperature changes. Being blind, it does not see the leaves shrivel and fall and then renew themselves on the bush where it is affixed. Unaware of time, it is also unaware of space. It waits, suspended in duration for its particular moment of time, a moment distinguished by being filled with a single, unique experience; the scent of butyric acid.

Though we consider ourselves far removed as humans from such a lowly insect form as this, we too are both aware and unaware of elements which comprise our environment. We are more aware than the tick of the passage of time. We are subjectively aware of the aging process; we know that we grow older, that time is shortened by each passing moment. For the tick, however, this moment that precedes it bursts of volitional activity, the moment when it scents butyric acid and it thrusts into purposeful movement, is close to the end of time for the tick. When it fills itself with blood, it drops from its host, lays its eggs and dies.

Exercise 3

D. Organization Practice: List Structures

Incapable of Organization

Some material -- such as the items in the following list -- is not apparently capable of organization. If you are unfortunate enough to have to learn a list consisting of items that are not homogeneous, not mutually exclusive, and not exhaustive (i.e., some items that could apparently have been included in the list have been excluded) -- in other words, not logically related in any way -- then you will have a difficult time recalling the items, since logical association is one of the most powerful aids to recall. Some disciplines actually require you to know such material, although one would hope never to come across an example as bizarre as the following list:

Classification found in ancient Chinese encyclopedia

Belonging to the EmperorEmbalmed
TameSucking Pigs
SirensFabulous
Stray DogsIncluded in the present classification
FrenziedInnumerable
Drawn with a very fine camelhair brushet cetera
Having just broken the water pitcherThat from a long way off look like flies

Capable of Organization

The following list is capable of organization, but is in disorder. See if you can group the elements of the list in a logical way: or see if you can summarize and explain the information contained in this list.

TigersHarmlessSquirrelsDeer
PetsWildPigsDogs
Black PanthersDomesticCattleAnimals
CatsDingosHorsesLivestock
PossumsDangerousLionsWoodchucks

Summary

For practical purposes, animals can be divided into those which are wild and those which are tame or domestic. Wild animals are either dangerous or harmless. Dangerous animals, for example, are lions, tigers, black panthers, and dingos. Harmless animals might be deer, squirrels, woodchucks, and possums. Domestic animals are livestock or pets. Livestock, for example, includes cattle, pigs, and horses while pets usually include dogs and cats.

Outline

• Animals
• Wild
• Dangerous
• Lions
• Tigers
• 1.______
• Dingos
• 2.______
• 3.______
• Squirrels
• Woodchucks
• Possums
• Domestic
• 4.______
• cattle
• Pigs
• Horses
• 5.______
• Dogs
• Cats

Sources: