Taking Notes & Reading
Beginning college note takers often make some basic mistakes. Here are two easy ones to avoid that will greatly improve the quality of your notes:
- Trying to write down every word the professor says is both pointless and impossible. You must learn to concentrate on what is being said and filter out the nonessential portions that connect important ideas and examples. Remember, by definition notes are supposed to be an abbreviated version of what the professor says.
- There’s probably more content in a lecture than what the professor actually writes on the overhead or blackboard. Although what the professor writes down is obviously important, in most lectures there will also be important spoken material that connects the ideas and terms that actually end up on the screen or board. Again, you must learn to recognize and record these connectors.
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