Taking Notes

How do you take notes in class?

I've always been someone who needs to take notes. I can't just sit in lecture and listen to the professor without engaging in the material somehow. I've also always handwritten my notes. There have been studies that show that handwriting things helps you process and remember the information better. 

Something I've run into though, is how do you set up your notes? Everyone who's ever looked at mine always say something like, "Wow! They're so neat!" They look so nice!" "You color-code them??" 

Yes, I do color code my notes. Color helps you learn. I've taken colored notes since about fifth or sixth grade. 

Here's what they usually look like.

Here's what the first page looks like. The chapter or unit and the title go at the top. Date goes in the top righthand corner. 

From there, I lay out my notes like an outline. The roman numeral titles vary depending on the topic that's being introduced. In this case, these are notes I took on my own from reading, so that's why the first bullet is just "Introduction". 

Moving along from there, I use a dash for the material that's being introduced and then an actual bullet point for any relevant information on that same topic. Stars are for subheadings; they exist in the same topic, they're just introducing another subject relevant to that subject. You can kind of see in the picture above. The star is a concept that was introduced in the main topic- it's related, just not the next major heading. 

Roman numerals are for an entirely new section or slide, if there's a lecture. 

The alternating colors are helpful for studying. I put vocabulary, statistics, dates, names, etc. in one color, and then the definition in another. That "definition" color, is the primary color that the notes are taken in. The other color is also used for diagrams or tables. The accent color is to help me find any important information while studying, instead of having to read through the entire thing to find what I'm looking for. 

That's pretty much it. The layout has been the same since I've been in high school I think, and it hasn't changed since. 

How do you take notes? Is there a different way I should be doing things? What works for you? 

Au revoir et à demain, 

Rachel