Tag: notes

Student perspective: My journey with MarginNote mind maps

Posted on by study.skills

by Allison Sia, Law student and Bristol Futures Advocate

Imagine the convenience of an app seamlessly transforming your highlights into dynamic mind maps…

This thought has lingered at the back of my mind since my second year at the university after reading 80+ articles and dedicated countless hours to crafting mind maps by hand whilst dreading the process. Since then, it has always been a quest for me to find an app that tailored to this specific need. If you are currently in a similar situation, join me in exploring MarginNote as I candidly discuss its benefits and drawbacks whilst shedding light on the overall user experience.

Mind map with one main heading and four sub-headings. Two of the sub-headings have additional branches coming off them.
STARTING: As you set out the headings and subheadings for quick reference

Advantages of the Margin Note app

  1. Efficiency and time-Saving features. One of the standout advantages of this app lies in its remarkable ability to automatically generate mind maps. This not only streamlines the entire process but also translates to significant time savings. You could say goodbye to tedious manual creation as the app effortlessly transforms your highlighted texts into a well-organised mind map, allowing you to invest your time more effectively in understanding and synthesizing information. 
  2. Transformation of messy handwritten mind maps. Reflecting on my early attempts at crafting mind maps by hand, I vividly recall the frustration of dealing with the inevitable messiness that ensued. Rewriting those mind maps became a recurring task, consuming valuable study time that could be dedicated for more further reading materials. Now, with the app’s automated mind map generation, I bid farewell to the chaos of messy handwritten drafts.  
  3. Headings: enhanced organization & personalisation. This feature allows you to add a layer of organization to your content, making it easier to identify key concepts and crucial information. Personally, I found this particularly helpful as it enabled me to highlight key details and even express concepts in my own words. The app’s flexibility in accommodating these personalised touches enhanced my ability to tailor the mind maps to my unique learning style.  

Advantages of mind mapping 

  1. Instant insight into article content. Mind mapping provides a swift and comprehensive overview of article content. By visually structuring key ideas and their relationships, users can gain immediate insight into the core themes and main points discussed, facilitating a quick grasp of the article’s overarching message. 
  2. Efficient information retrieval. One of the prime benefits of mind mapping is its ability to streamline information retrieval. Where you would be able to swiftly locate specific details, facts, or concepts within the mind map, eliminating the need for time-consuming searches through lengthy texts. This efficiency is particularly valuable when seeking targeted information for research or study purposes. 
  3. Enhanced memory retention through quick scans. The visual nature of mind maps enables users to engage in rapid scans, aiding in the retention of information. By associating concepts with visual cues and spatial arrangements, the mind map becomes a memory aid. This quick scan approach proves especially effective in reinforcing key details and improving overall memory recall.
  4. Conceptual breakdown into digestible units. Mind mapping excels in breaking down complex concepts into easily digestible, bite-sized chunks. Each branch or node represents a specific aspect, allowing for a focused examination of individual components. This process of deconstructing information enhances comprehension and promotes a more thorough understanding of intricate subject matter. 

 Limitations of the Margin Note app 

  1.  Absence of highlighting on mind maps. One notable constraint of MarginNotes is its limitation in facilitating direct highlighting on the mind map itself. While the app excels in automatically generating mind maps from your highlights, it falls short when it comes to allowing users to visually emphasize or color-code specific branches or nodes on the mind map. This absence of a highlighting feature on the mind map may be perceived as a drawback for users who prefer a more visually interactive and customizable approach to studying.
  2. Inability to bold words on the mind map. Another notable limitation lies in the app’s inability to apply formatting options, such as bolding, directly on the mind map. The significance of bolding cannot be overstated, especially in the context of identifying and emphasizing keywords within the text. Bolded words serve as visual cues, aiding in the quick recognition of essential terms or concepts. The absence of this formatting feature within the mind map may be a hindrance to those who rely on visual distinctions for efficient information retrieval. 

 Limitations of mind mapping

  1. Applicability to diverse article types. Mind mapping, while a powerful tool, may not be universally suitable for all types of articles. Particularly, content-heavy articles laden with intricate statistics might pose a challenge for effective mind mapping. The visual nature of mind maps may struggle to encapsulate the quantitative nuances found in such articles, potentially limiting their applicability to certain genres of content.
  2. Passive engagement during mind map creation. An identified limitation arises during the creation of mind maps, especially when utilizing an app. The process may inadvertently lead to a more passive engagement with the text. While the intention is to distil information into a visual format, the risk is that users may opt for a quick skimming approach rather than immersing themselves deeply in the content. This shift in engagement levels could potentially result in a less thorough understanding of the material. 
Section of a mind map with multiple branches, which then branch further. The branches are colour coded.
You might end up with something like that…

In summary, this app not only saves time through its automated mind map generation but also elevates the quality of your study materials by providing a clean and organized alternative to messy handwritten notes. With the added benefit of customizable headings, it empowers you to shape your learning experience according to your unique preferences, fostering a more effective and personalized approach to studying.

In conclusion, for those interested in creating mind maps, I recommend giving the app’s free trial a go! 

For more information about using AI tools for study, see our online guide to Using AI at University

 

Student discount. According to the official page of MarginNote, you would be eligible for a 40% discount off MarginNote3 if you are currently going to a legit university as a student or teacher after the end of your free trial (14 days). More information to apply is linked here

Student Advocate tips for… in-person and recorded lectures

Posted on by study.skills

Seminar room in the Fry Building

Our Bristol Futures Student Advocates come from every faculty in the university, and are here to support you to grow your skills and become an even better student.

We asked them to share their top tips for lectures and seminars, whether online or in-person. Here’s what they said…

Turn up to in-person sessions!

It sounds stupidly obvious, but you really need to turn up. Past online lectures are digestible when watching online because they were designed to be delivered that way. In person lectures are designed to work the best when you turn up and sit through it — the recording isn’t the same! Also try not to miss any lectures, when you miss one it’s so likely for you to carry on the lazy habit and not show up to lectures ever again… Carol, 3rd year Plant/Bio Science

Firstly, go to your seminar even if you have not fully done the reading. Secondly, contribute to the discussions. It does not matter if your answer is wrong. And it is better to make the mistakes now and not later in the timed assessments. Finally, don’t stress about it! You will be just fine. Allison, 2nd year Law

 

Be (a little) prepared

Arrive at the lecture theatre early and use that waiting time to flick through the PowerPoint or whatever lecture material you got given. It usually takes less than 10 minutes, but it gives you a rough idea of the structure, where to pay more attention, and saves you from scribbling down notes when it will turn up on the next slide. Carol, 3rd year Plant/Bio Science

Try to list down all the relevant ILOs (Intended Learning Outcomes) and think of relevant subheadings for your notes prior to the lecture/seminar. This will help you to be more prepared in the in-person lecture/seminar. Very often, in-person lecture is more fast-paced than a recorded lecture. We as a student have to be more prepared so that we will not miss any key content during the lecture. Thinking about the ILOs beforehand can help you to take notes more effectively by screening out the irrelevant materials taught in the lecture. In such a way, we do not need to revisit the recording after the lecture. As a result, we can maximise the efficiency of our study. Emma, 3rd year Veterinary Science

 

Don’t copy everything

Most times lecturers provide the downloadable PowerPoint for each lecture. Use this to write any additional points that were said by the lecturer in the recording but not written on the slides. By doing this, you will save time and you reduce repetition. Anaya, 3rd year Law

If you just copy what the lecturer wrote down, you are not going to absorb and digest what the lecturer’s main point is. Even worse, you wouldn’t know if the lecturer makes a mistake. Instead, pay full attention to listening to what the lecturer is saying first. After a few sentences, think about what is the main point conveyed in what is written down on the board (or presented on the slide). And then, use your own words to jot down any key points. If you can’t catch them, need not to worry! Simply watch the recorded lecture later and pause as you go. If the lecture is not recorded, it would be nice if you can email the lecturer asking for clarification on such topics. They would be happy to help!

You will be panicked by the fact that while everyone in the hall is ferociously writing, while you are sitting there, only listening. But remember, you are also paying your full attention to the lecture, and you have done nothing less than your classmates did! Ryan, 2nd year Mathematics

 

Use questions for learning

As you watch the lecture clearly flag any concepts/areas that you don’t fully understand and formulate (and write down) specific questions that you think could get you the answers you need. This habit helps provide structure and direction to your reflection/revision process after the lecture, as you know exactly what you need to follow up on talking to the lecturer or extra research/reading. I have found this makes my learning more efficient (by saving you from repeatedly covering content you know/understand in order to locate what you are less clear on) and more effective (as your learning becomes targeted to any weak points).  Emily, 3rd year Biomedical Sciences

 

Watching a recorded lecture? Pretend it’s in-person

It’s very tempting to stop every 10s to make detailed notes just because you can do that — but that’s not most effective way: it takes forever to finish watching one recording and you are not really processing the information before writing it down (you’re more like… manually typing up the captions).

Pretend it’s an in person lecture and don’t give yourself the option to stop, at least not that often. That way, it forces you to do some preparation work and to think about the material before deciding if it’s worth writing down. The recordings are always going to be there so it’s not the end of the world if your notes is missing some fine details — you can always go back and have a look as long as you know where to look! Carol, 3rd year Plant/Bio Science

What are your own top tips for making the most of lectures? Do you prefer being there in person or watching a recording? Let us know in the comments below. 

Bristol Futures Student Advocates run peer support sessions for students in their faculty. Check out the Study Skills Blackboard page to see what’s coming up.

 

 

Student perspective: How to read academic articles without getting overwhelmed

Posted on by study.skills

Helen, the author of the blog postby Helen March, English and History student and Bristol Futures Advocate

When I first started my degree as an English and history student, I found the prospect of reading academic articles incredibly daunting. I struggled for a long time to get to grips with the language used, and learning what parts of an article were important to note down, wasting time writing every point the academic made. However, after two years of study, I have picked up some habits which will hopefully help you avoid the same pitfalls and allow you to take the most important information from an article.

So here are my top five tips to avoid getting lost in academic articles:

1. Read the conclusion after the introduction and before the rest of the article

This will help you to navigate your way through the writer’s argument. Although sometimes mentioned in the introduction, the general argument may not be clear throughout the whole article. However, reading the end means you can better understand the direction of an author’s argument before knowing exactly how they get there. If you understand the point an academic is trying to make, you can interrogate it more effectively in your work. Understanding the main argument is key when reading academic work!

Bonus tip! – The academic will sometimes note their key points in their conclusion, helpful for making subtitles to categorise your notes.

2. Read the first and last sentence of a paragraph before diving into the body of it

More often than not, this will give you a good idea of the point being made and whether it is relevant to the research you are doing. Sometimes only a small part of an article will be useful to your research, so sifting through irrelevant information will save you time in the long run.

3. Don’t get bogged down by jargon

Academic language can be complex and the sophistication of language within an article can be overwhelming. For key words you don’t understand, look them up, the oxford english dictionary is your friend! The university has a subscription (oed.com). However, don’t let yourself be entirely consumed by understanding every word within an article, generally only a few will be important. So long as you understand the general gist of a sentence, you will probably be ok! If you are too concerned with understanding every word, it becomes easy to forget the article’s main argument.

4. Just because something sounds sophisticated doesn’t mean it is

Although a quote might look appealing, it may lack actual substance. It’s better to quote and analyse something worded simply but effectively, allowing you to interrogate it in closer detail in your writing.

4. Most importantly, practice!

You won’t learn how to read an article overnight. Although the advice I have given here has hopefully made the prospect of reading academic writing less daunting, it won’t solve all your issues! Academic writing is difficult to understand and the more of it you read the more you learn how to systematically work your way through complex pieces of writing.

Have you got any useful tips for reading articles? Let us know in the comments below!

How I make notes: From a textbook

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Jasmin, the author of the blog post by Jasmin Rahman, Cellular and Molecular Medicine student and Bristol Futures Advocate

Textbooks can contain so much more content than the lecturer could ever cover in class, but the process of actually writing notes from textbooks can be mind-numbingly boring. In first and second year I often picked up these massive intimidating textbooks that my lecturers recommend, read pages of text for ages and then realised I didn’t understand any of it.

However textbooks are an invaluable resource and can be so helpful in aiding understanding of topics. To effectively learn from them means making your reading a fairly active process, hopefully these tips that have improved my experience can also be helpful for you in improving your textbook notes and making the most effective use of your time

1. Give yourself time

My main takeaway message is: There’s no ‘perfect’ amount of time or secret formula to work out how much time to spend reading textbooks and each textbook has different requirements.

However I’ve always struggled with either rushing through the recommended readings or spending hours reading just a few pages and realising none of it is particularly helpful.

Which leads me to my first tip of: Learn to skim read before starting any notes.

It’s so tempting to just dive in and start highlighting everything, but writing and highlighting the first time you read a passage isn’t effective as it’s difficult to predict whether the sentence is actually important. Main things to look out for whilst skim reading are key words (usually bolded), diagrams and sub-headings.

Finding the balance between skim reading and actual reading can be difficult at first, what worked well for me at the beginning was setting a timer for around 30 seconds a page that way I wasn’t getting caught up in details and could actively prepare for what was coming up next.

Page indexes are also so helpful in contextualising topics and quickly finding which pages to read. But one of the biggest drawbacks is that sometimes indexes can lead to massive chunks of text where the key topic you’re looking for is a tiny sentence, so I’d really recommend skim reading when doing index searches as it’s definitely saved me so much time!

2. Actively read the textbook

When faced with a big chunk of text, it’s really tempting to ‘log off’ and read passively without really digesting anything. For me, creating a highlighter ‘colour code’ was really useful (see picture) and helped to me engage with notes as you’re forced to actively ‘characterise’ each sentence as you read along.

Reading can also be so monotonous, so having questions in the back of your mind like ‘How does this fit into my lecture/across the course?’ or ‘Could this be an interesting point to include in an essay?’ can be very helpful by keeping the reading focused on the direct benefits.

Writing questions in the margins is one of the cornerstones of active reading, but I’d recommend answering any questions after you’ve finished reading rather than as soon as they pop up. For me it’s so easy going into a googling ‘rabbit-hole’ of questions and it always ends up in procrastination and having only digested about 2 sentences of the reading.

Note: I usually highlight on a tablet, however when using library books I stick a post-it note to the side of the page to note down questions and use index tabs as replacement for highlighting.

On the left hand side, a page from a textbook with sentences highlighted in different colours and questions handwritten in the margins. On the right hand side, a typed page of notes summarising the textbook page.

3. Make personalised notes

A huge part of learning when first trying to understand a topic is being able to recall information. So when it comes to writing notes from a textbook, be cautious that you’re not taking notes after every line by closing the textbook or by moving your eyes away and writing everything you can remember. This enables you to write notes in your own words, with the added benefit that it prevents accidental plagiarism when you’re using notes in open-book exams. For me, being selective in what I wrote has stopped me creating lots of notes directly copied from the textbook that I never actually ended up reading.

The whole purpose of notes is that they’re for you, so write them in a way that makes sense to you and is effective for your learning. As a life sciences student I find the outline method helpful, but there are so many others and if you’re unsure I’d recommend checking out the Study Skills tab on Blackboard to learn more about note-taking methods here.

These are just a few tips that have worked well for me personally and changed the way I make notes, I’d definitely recommend trying out anything that stands out to you. And good luck!

How I make notes: From recorded lectures

Posted on by study.skills

Photo of Gloria, the author of this blog postby Gloria Bosi, Mechanical Engineering student and Bristol Futures Advocate

While a lot of us were lucky to make a long-awaited return to campus this year, hybrid learning means that pre-recorded lectures are still a core part of our academic lives. With new videos coming every week, efficient notetaking is an essential skill to have. It’s not always as easy as it seems! You want to write just enough that you can understand your notes when you look back at them, but not so much that you are just copying the slides. You may also want to pause the video occasionally, but without tripling the time it takes for you to watch it. It’s a delicate balance that needs to be mastered. Lucky for you, I am here to help.

I’m Gloria, a third-year Mechanical Engineering student and Bristol Futures Advocate. With almost 2 years of online university under my belt, I want to share my top tips for taking notes from recorded lectures. I recommend trying the following things:

1. Doing the prep work

Skimming through the lecture slides before watching a recording helps me retain information better. I don’t own a tablet or printer, so there’s no easy way for me to take notes directly on the slides. Peeking in advance allows me to get a better look at any complicated diagrams or words that I need to write down. Once I know what to expect from the slides, I can focus better on what the lecturer is saying in the recording. Most importantly, skimming through the slides helps me build a mental picture of how I want to take notes for the topic.

2. Pausing with caution

Continuously pausing a lecture recording is dangerous business. It can easily double or triple the time it takes to finish watching. If this sounds familiar, try to be pickier about when you choose to pause the video. Ask yourself: did you really miss something that will stop you from understanding the topic as a whole? Another way to save time and avoid pauses is to come up with your own shorthand notations. Remember that your notes are not a textbook, and they don’t need to be written in full sentences. You’re the only one who needs to be able to understand them! If something confuses you or you happen to get stuck, don’t let that stop you from finishing the video. Write a post-it note or mark the sentence that confused you and keep watching. When you finish the lecture recording, you can ask about this on Blackboard discussion forums and return to it when you get a response.

3. Don’t be afraid to use colour!

Try using different coloured pens to distinguish between notes taken directly from the slides and those based off what the lecturer is saying. If you’re a visual learner like me, this can really help with information retention and memory.

4. Writing summaries

After a long note-taking session, don’t forget to write a brief summary of what you learnt. If possible, check this against the intended learning outcomes of the lecture to ensure you didn’t miss anything.

5. Finding what works for you

Don’t be afraid to try new methods. Remember that there’s no single right way of taking notes! In fact, the same method might not work across different modules if the content delivery varies. In this new hybrid learning environment, it’s especially important to diversify your note-taking approaches and find what works for you. Finally, if you’re not sure how to structure your notes by yourself, you can try an existing method, such as Cornell notes. You can read more about this here.

Hope you enjoyed the post, and leave a comment to let us know your best note-taking tips!

How I make notes: A law student’s guide to making revision notes

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Photo of Tala, the author of the blog postby Tala Youhana, Law student and Bristol Futures Advocate

If you’re a law student, you’re probably familiar with the ‘IRAC’ method, which is traditionally used to solve legal problem questions, so you’re probably wondering why I’m mentioning it in a post about making revision notes. Surprisingly, IRAC (Issue, Rule, Application, Conclusion) can provide a very effective guide beyond the remits we’re familiar with, and this post will seek to walk you through the process of using IRAC to make your revision notes.

Firstly, it’s important to emphasize the individualised nature of making notes, whereby there is no single right or wrong approach, so this post should only be used as a guide to help you find a unique approach which works well for you.

 I- Identify the issues

This is where you ask yourself what has worked well for you in the past and what hasn’t. In this stage, keeping an open mind is essential, and can be your most powerful tool. For instance, do you have a preference between digital and hand-written notes? If so, have you tested out both before coming to your conclusion? You may ask yourself questions like, which is easier to refer to when writing essays, which is easier to store, how easy is it to find what you’re looking for, would a hybrid approach be more effective, etc. Seek to identify obstacles you experienced in previous revision sessions and intervene with an effective solution. For me, I used to have difficulty with revisiting incomplete work, so I created a checklist before each lesson in my notes detailing all the work that I need to get done, so that when I was revising, I could immediately find incomplete work which needed revisiting.

R- Make the rules

Law students are expected to navigate numerous types of sources including cases, statutes, lectures, textbooks and articles, so finding a consistent technique that simplifies this is important. For instance, I generally colour code my notes following the same rules in every module: making case names purple, statutes pink, and articles emboldened, to distinguish them. For digital notes, also aim to familiarise yourself with keyboard functions such as “ctrl + f” to help you locate keywords when browsing a long document. Furthermore, incorporating a system of subheadings can be really effective for revision.

Handwritten notes using colour coding and a checklist of outcomes
Some of the rules in action – Notes on law, equity and trusts of land

A- Apply the rules

Once you have found the technique which works for you, your next hurdle would be to stay consistent in applying it, as this will remove the burden of you having to remember each modification you made over time, unless you feel that your previous approach is no longer working for you.

 C- Conclude

Finally, if you have spare time, formulate summaries for each section of your work or leave some room for this, to make it easier for your future self to remember the key elements in each section.

This was a whistle-stop tour to making revision notes for law, and now the rest is over to you to find what works best for you. Good luck!

How I make notes: For essay planning

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Photo of Breanna, the author of the postby Breanna Goff, Psychology student and Bristol Futures Advocate

Hello! My name is Breanna and I am a third year Psychology student at Bristol University. My degree sometimes feels like essay upon essay, so I have a few tips up my sleeve from the past couple of years.

 

 

 

When faced with a challenging and complex essay question, it feels like the final product is so far out of reach. Where do I start? What will it look like? And how long will it take? I like to remind myself that every student (and probably every professor) knows this feeling well. So how would I start?

All good essays begin with good notes.

Understanding the foundations.

When starting to think about an essay, it’s crucial that I fully understand the foundation of the topic. I take time to fill in the gaps of my learning- adding to my lecture notes by reading topic overviews and recommended starter papers provided. I usually annotate my lecture slides to ensure I am aligning my understanding with the learning objectives set by my lecturer. By doing this, I not only consolidate my knowledge of the area, but I am creating a strong set of notes which can easily be referred to and utilized in the introduction of my essay.

Time to explore.

Now I have developed some solid notes about the topic’s foundation, its time to explore the field. I usually look over my notes and highlight areas which interest me the most regarding my essay question. Here, I create a word document with several colour coded headings of areas I want to explore. I read several papers into each option and make short notes on each. For example, I will summarise the findings of each paper and jot down how this finding relates to the essay question, adding points for critical analysis where I can. Now, the most important lesson I have learned in my experience of essay note taking is to always make note of the source I have obtained my information from. I do this by pasting the article title next to my summary notes. Trust me, when you have read 50+ articles for your essay, it becomes difficult to remember which paper stated which fact.

Finding my focus.

It’s time to narrow my choices down. I look over the notes of areas I have explored and review what addresses my essay question most effectively. After deciding on a rough narrative, I assess which specific papers I can utilize in my essay. This may take a bit of time and some extra reading; I usually focus on 3-5 key papers in the main body of my essay. When I have selected these, I make more extensive notes by answering the 5 following bullet points for each:

  • What is the aim of the paper?
  • How did the researcher study this area?
  • What did they find out?
  • How does this relate to my essay question?
  • Are there any points for critical analysis?

I have found using these prompts is highly useful when note taking as, when I come to write my essay, I have already outlined the structure of each paragraph effectively.

5 bullet points answering the 5 questions above about a paper on the links between overeating and sleep deprivation
Notes on a psychology research paper answering the 5 bullet points

Now, as I begin to write up my essay, I can be confident in the extensive notes I have taken. My detailed lecture notes help me write my introduction by giving me a solid foundational understanding. My exploration notes have helped me determine the most effective narrative for my question. And finally, my detailed notes of key studies will allow me to write my essay with ease and direction. The final product is within arm’s reach!

 

 

Student Advocate tips for… making the most of lectures

Posted on by study.skills

Students in a banked lecture theatre

Our Bristol Futures Student Advocates come from every faculty in the university, and are here to support you to grow your skills and become an even better student.

We asked them to share their top tips for making the most of lectures. Here’s what they said…

Don’t copy everything!

If you just copy what the lecturer wrote down, you are not going to absorb and digest what the lecturer’s main point is. Even worse, you wouldn’t know if the lecturer makes a mistake. Instead, pay full attention to listening to what the lecturer is saying first. After a few sentences, think about what is the main point conveyed in what is written down on the board (or presented on the slide). And then, use your own words to jot down any key points. If you can’t catch them, need not to worry! Simply watch the recorded lecture later and pause as you go. If the lecture is not recorded, it would be nice if you can email the lecturer asking for clarification on such topics. They would be happy to help!

You will be panicked by the fact that while everyone in the hall is ferociously writing, while you are sitting there, only listening. But remember, you are also paying your full attention to the lecture, and you have done nothing less than your classmates did! Ryan, 2nd year Mathematics

Use questions for learning

As you watch the lecture clearly flag any concepts/areas that you don’t fully understand and formulate (and write down) specific questions that you think could get you the answers you need.

This habit helps provide structure and direction to your reflection/revision process after the lecture, as you know exactly what you need to follow up on talking to the lecturer or extra research/reading. I have found this makes my learning more efficient (by saving you from repeatedly covering content you know/understand in order to locate what you are less clear on) and more effective (as your learning becomes targeted to any weak points).  Emily, 3rd year Biomedical Sciences

 

Bristol Futures Student Advocates run peer support sessions for students in their faculty. Check out the Study Skills Blackboard page to see what’s coming up.

 

 

How I make notes: On paper

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Photo of Carys, the author of the blog post

by Carys James, Veterinary Sciences student and Bristol Futures Advocate

The majority of note-taking by students is done digitally in today’s society, but for those of you who are more traditional and prefer a classic pen and paper style like me, please indulge yourself into my personal experience and tips.

When it comes to taking notes for lectures, I always find it best to print the lecture slides out at the beginning of each week, as this motivates me and makes me feel well-prepared. In my opinion, the best way to print lecture notes out is either 6 power point slides per A4 sheet, or 3 power point slides with lines next to each slide for you to make notes/annotations. Whichever style you choose will be a combination of personal preference based on the size of your handwriting and also dependent on how much individual lecturers add to the content of each of their lecture slides. The latter is something in which you will become more familiar with as you get to know your lecturers individually.

Now that you have printed your notes and organised them neatly into your bag ready to head to the lecture, you now need to consider the most effective way to actually write down the lecture content. I find that this is best approached with a ‘chunk and check’ method. This involves actively listening to the lecturer, making note of anything they are simply reading from their slides and differentiating it from anything extra they add which isn’t on the power point. The next step is to summarise anything they have added into shorter, paraphrased sentences or even abbreviations, for example, abbreviating gastro-intestinal tract into ‘GIT’. Finally, write these short sentences onto the printed lecture slides to complement and aid your understanding of what is written already.

When it comes to taking paper notes home, they can become easily jumbled or lost, so good organisational skills are key here. I find it best to split each of my units into different topics based on the ‘intended learning outcomes’ from my specific programme handbook and when I have attended/watched a specific lecture, I will place it into the correct topic which will be in a ring-binder folder. I also keep a list of each of the lectures for the year from the programme handbook and tick each lecture off as I place them into the folders. This makes it much easier to come back to and find specific topics you may want to focus on when it comes to revising for exams or making flash cards, etc.

One of my favourite things about taking paper notes is the fact that I don’t need to carry a heavy laptop around with me all day, what’s yours?

How I make notes: The 5Rs

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Photo of Molly, the author of this blog post By Molly Jackson, Translational Health Sciences student and Bristol Futures Advocate

The way we take notes is a big influence on how well we learn, and this differs greatly between individuals. As students we are often told to make notes throughout our lectures and use them to answer exam questions and provide essays with references to both literature written by experts in the field and our own opinions. This is often overwhelming, especially when we are provided with a high volume of information in a lecture and do not know where to start with how to record this information into notes.

After struggling in my first and second years of university with extensive pages of long notes piled on my desk never to be revisited, I began to wonder if there was a method out there to make use of notes as well as just making them. Following some extensive googling and asking fellow students on their approach to notetaking, I decided to try the Cornell method which breaks down notetaking into 5 easy stages…

An overview of the 5Rs of note taking, adapted from the Cornell Method (Pauk 2001). Record. Make note of the key facts you learn throughout your lecture. Reduce. Summarise key facts into short bullet points. Recite. Write out your short bullet points into a resource that can be revisited. Reflect. Use the bullet points as a starting point to develop your own opinions. How does it relate to other topics you’ve learned? How is this relevant to literature currently published in the field? How can you apply your critical thinking to this topic? Review. Regularly review the resources you develop in the lead up to exams or as part of essay preparation.
An overview of the 5 Rs of note taking, adapted from the Cornell method (Pauk 2001)

I found that using this approach breaks down complicated topics into bitesize pieces that can be used to build back into a bigger picture with wider reading and your own opinions. The best thing about using this method is that, as we all learn in different ways, this approach can be tailored to the individual and gives you a chance to be creative. For example, for the visual learners, the recite and review stage could be carried out in the form of a diagram or mind map, and for auditory learners, in the form of a song. It has also been scientifically proven that this technique is highly effective in a range of disciplines!*

Page split into 5 sections titled record, reduce/ recite, review, reflect - relevant literature, and reflect - own opinion. There are notes in each section on the subject of Parkinson's Disease.
Notes for a final year essay

The only question left to ask is what is what kind of learner are you and how can you build this into the 5Rs approach to develop achieve note taking success?

 

*Some examples of the evidence:
  • Evans B and Shively C. Using the Cornell Note-Taking System Can Help Eighth Grade Students Alleviate the Impact of Interruptions While Reading at Home. Journal of Inquiry and Action in Education. 2019;10:1-35.
  • Donohoo J. Learning How to Learn: Cornell Notes as an Example. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy. 2010;54:224-227.
  • Hayati A and Jalilifar A. The Impact of Note-taking Strategies on Listening Comprehension of EFL Learners. English Language Teaching. 2009;2.
  • Quintus L, Borr M, Duffield S, Napoleon L and Welch A. The impact of the Cornell note-taking method on students’ performance in a high school family and consumer sciences class. Family and Consumer Sciences Research Journal. 2012;30:27-38.