Regardless of the career path you choose, there will eventually come a time in your college career wheere your regular style of note-taking isn't efficient enough to sort through the information you're presented during your lectures. I've been in college for six years, and I'm still adapting my note-taking styles to fit the various lectures I have every semester. It can be difficult to alter - or sometimes completely change - your style, but I'm here to help you out!
I preface these tips by saying that these are tips that I've found work best for me. So remember that your results with these techniques may vary. However, if you're completely lost and have no place to start, I hope that this serves as a starting point so that you can work on developing a method of note-taking that works best for you.
The threee types of presentations I'll be covering are:
PowerPoints are probably the most common way professors will present their lecture material. Unfortunately, because PowerPoint was generous enough to allow its users to be creative, the way that professors compose their presentations varies. And sometimes they can vary drastically. Ultimately, I have found that the most common styles of PowerPoint lectures are:
>> Giant blocks of text
>> Images that may or may not be relevant to the lecture
>> And the ones that have the perfect balance of text and relevant images
Obviously, the first two are the most difficult to decipher because it can be extremely difficult to decide what needs to be written down in your notes and what can be disregarded. So let's take a closer look at these two styles.
BLOCKS OF TEXT
Luckily, most professors have realized how difficult this kind of presentation can be for students and they don't use them during their lectures. However, there are still those choice few professors who slap their students with slide after slide of pure text during every lecture. I actually have two professors this semester who do this, and it can be so overwhelming! It's difficult to know what information is important and what can be disregarded. So what do you do?
>> Look for any text that is in CAPS, bolded, italicized, underlined, or in a different color. These are usually indications that this information is important - key points, definitions, etc. As soon as you spot text in this style, jot the information down in your notes.
>> Once you've found those, speed read through the rest of the text on the slide. Try to find anything that looks like a key fact or a definition.
>> If you notice the professor verbally repeating something on the slide, it's probably something that is goiung to appear on the next exam; write it down. They're emphasizing that information for a reason!
>> If your professor says something that isn't on the slide, use your best judgement to determine if it's note-worthy or if they're just going off on a tangent.
PowerPoint Presentations
This is a slide from my Art History course this semester. When I'm not looking at slides with an image of a piece of art, I'm looking at slides like this - nothing but text. And most of the time, she doesn't include any variation on the fonts (no bold, underlined, or italics) so I have to strain my brain to decide what information is important. In this case, I actually printed off the slides and just taped them into my notebook because I couldn't decipher what was important. The other option is to take hand-written notes; listen to what your professor emphasizes and write that information down in your notes.
IMAGE HEAVY
Sometimes slides like this are necessary and they serve their purpose. In my Holocuast Studies course, my professor often includes slides with maps to give us a visual explanation of the routes Hitler took during his invasions throughout Europe. Those are helpful, and he usually references them several times throughout his lecture.
This is another slide from my Art History course. As the title suggests, it's a map of Europe of Europe in the 16th century. This image would have been a great reference if she hadn't skipped over it in the beginning of her lecture and had made any kind of reference to it during the lecture. Despite its relevance to the lecture, she just kind of skipped over it.
So what do you do with this kind of presentation?
Essentially, the only thing you can do is really tune in to what your professor is saying. Really listen to what they repeat, what they emphasize. Take hand-written notes the "old-fashioned" way, by hand (The link will take you to my page about hand-written notes versus typed notes). This kind of slide has ultimately become a visual to remind your professor what he or she needs to say next.
Chalk Talks
These are the kind of presentations that are most commonly seen in courses that are math-heavy: any math class, physics, chemistry...any of those kind of courses. Just like PowerPoints, the way chalk talks are presented can vary depending on the kind of professor you have. Some professors are extremely helpful and write everything on the board; in this case, quickly jot down all the information before it's erased. On the other hand, there are professors that write the equations, graphs, or diagrams (or whatever else is pertinent to the lecture) but then verbally give you important information. This is where chalk talks get tricky. I've found the easiest way for me to deal with these are:
>> Use regular printer paper or graph paper. If your professor tends to have lectures that are scattered, I'd suggest using regular printer paper. This way, the paper can serve as your version of the board the professor is writing on - you can copy the information from the board to your paper and draw arrows to connect certain concepts together. Graph paper is better for lectures that are math-intensive or diagram-intensive. It makes notes look neater (without the extra hassle) which makes them easier to read when you go back to study.
>> Whatever is on the board should go into your notes. A professor isn't going to write something on the board if it isn't important or relevant to whatever the lecture is about.
>> Take note if your professor repeats something. Just like when dealing with PowerPoint lectures. Repetition means it's something important that he or she wants to drill into your brain. Make sure these get jotted down, even if it's just in the margins of your notes.
These are my notes on Upton Sinclair's The Jungle for my American Literature course this semester. Fortunately, as a Humanities major, I'm not subjected to exams. However, I always jot down pieces of analytical insight from my professors in the margins because they help me to better understand the works that I should be familiar with. This photo has a side note that reads: "The system commercializes women's bodies as commodities" in reference to the mention of prostitution in the novel. That's an important note given teh contex of the class, and I thought it was worth jotting down. My notebooks are covered with little side notes like this - particularly my literature notebooks and my Holocaust Studies notebook. Usually smashed in the margins wherever I can fit them.
>> Don't be afraid to speak up if you can't read your professor's handwriting. If he or she is in a rush, things that get handwritten can get sloppy. Or, worse than that, the professor might just have bad handwriting to begin with. If you can't read it, ask. It's better than having to take time out of your study session to try to decipher what it says.
Don't mind the crappy lighting and the stickey note in the upper right corner. This is the white board in the bedroom my fiancé and I share. It's really his white board, but sometimes I steal it. Jotted up there is a chemistry equation. I don't really know what it says because I'm really bad at chemistry and anything math-related. But the point is that this is the kind of information that would be featured in a chalk talk. Formulas, equations, graphs, diagrams, etc.
Oral Presentations
Oral presentations were always tricky for me. Obviously, I'm not able to write or type fast enough to catch every single thing my professor says. It can also be difficult to know whether or not the professor is leaving the path of the lecture and going on a tangent that you don't need to note. So how the hell do you get through these lectures?
>> Record your lectures. I don't do this for all of my lectures, but I have done if sporadically in the past, and I've seen it work well for others. It allows you to go back and listen to the lecture again to catch anything you may have missed the first time. The only real downfall to this is that when you listen to the lecture the second time around, you'll probably have to listen to it slower or keep pausing to ensure you catch everything; this can be a pain in the ass if you're in a time crunch.
>> Write your notes in an outline format, starting with your main point and indenting each subsequent point and all the supporting details that come after.
>> Again - if your professor repeats something, it's probably important and should be jotted down.
>> Do any reading needed for that lecture ahead of time - preferably not five minutes before the lecture. By doing this, it allows you to be somewhat familiar with the material and you can get a general feel for the direction the lecture will go.
>> Only write down the information you don't know. Don't worry about small details that are common knowledge. This will save you a lot of time to make sure you write down the information you'll need to study; and it gives you more space to write this information.
Last Minute Tips
Finally, here are just a few last minute note-taking tips that apply to every kind of lecture style:
>> Write quickly. Neat notes are great, but they don't do you any good if you can't write down all the information you need. If you want to have aesthethetically pleasing notes, you can always rewrite them and let that serve as a form of review.
>> Use shorthand whenever you can. But don't go too far and start using crazy symbols; you're more likely to forget what they mean. Once you find a shorthand that works best for you and you're comfortable with, keep it consistent and keep it simple. You can Google abbreviations to use when you're taking notes. I'm actually really bad at using shorthand - it's something that I've been telling myself I need to change for years.
>> Don't feel the need to write complete sentences or have perfect grammar. Your notes are, probably, for your eyes only; they only thing that really matters is that you can read them and understand them. You can rewrite them later as review if you're picky about having perfect grammar (*raises hand* I'm really bad at this, too.)
>> If you highlight or color code your notes, KEEP IT SIMPLE! I recommend no more than three colors if you choose to color code, and I suggest highlighting your notes AFTER the lecture - you'll have a better idea of what information needs highlighted and you won't fall behind during the lecture.