Note-Taking: What Good is it Anyway?

Have you ever been sitting in a class, and the teacher said, "Take notes on this; it will be on the test." Your stomach sinks to the ground because it seems teachers think we all have this innate ability to take notes spontaneously. Have your notes ever been a jumbled mess that you cannot make heads or tails of later when you look at them? For many people, taking notes is something they need to learn and practice after finding out why they should even do it in the first place.

What can note-taking be helpful for?

Understanding

Let's set the scene: Your school participates in foreign exchange programs, and you have met a new friend from another country. They don't know a lot about your culture. Think about something that you know and like well. You would be able to explain that topic to them fairly easily, right? Now, take it a step further. Your friend doesn't speak English very well, so they ask you to write down what you are explaining to them so they can try to understand it better through written words. You could probably do that too—in a logical way that you understood and could see as an aide to anyone who needed to know more about the subject.

Now let's set a different scene: Your new friend from another country with another culture who only knows a little about your country asks you to explain something you don't know very well. They ask you to write it down so they can understand it better. This would be very challenging, wouldn't it? In fact, it would likely be impossible to say or write anything useful to anyone.

When we understand something, we can transcribe that knowledge in written work. This is one of the purposes of taking notes. When we can write things down, it proves that we can understand and process (also called synthesize) that information, and produce it via pen and paper. Thus, note-taking helps us understand information better.

Remembering

How many times have you tried remembering what one of your instructors said in a class when doing homework, writing an essay, or taking a test but couldn't recall the necessary information? You know it was taught; you vaguely remember something about it, but it remains elusive. If you had written it down, say in some notes, you are more likely to remember it. Think about the famous quote from Benjamin Franklin: "Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn." Note-taking is a way of being involved. The physical movement of the pen on the paper is involvement. The active skill needed to listen or read and then write notes about it is involvement. And when we are involved in our learning, we will remember it. That is what learning is—getting information, processing it, recalling it, and producing something with it.

Additionally, we forget up to 50% of what we learned if we don't review notes within 24 hours of being given the information and possibly up to 65% in a week ("7 Strategies for Success" point 5). That means you only retain 35% of the material if you didn't take notes and review them. So, if you take notes—great! You will remember more than if you didn't. However, if you wait to review them until right before the test, a week or so later, then don't have time to, you'll, at best, be only 35% prepared for that test.

Now, let's look at improving those numbers. If you spend 10 minutes reviewing your notes within 24 hours of making them, you will remember almost 100% of the information. If you review those notes in 7 days, your memory will quickly draw the information back out again with as little as a 5-minute review. A month later, you will only need a few minutes to be confident that you know the information ("Curve of Forgetting" para 5). Now we can see how valuable those notes really are!

Future Use

Today in class, your English teacher assigned a pop essay on the material they presented earlier this week. You have nothing to worry about because you took great notes during class and have all the material to refer to and write from at your fingertips and fresh in your memory. You even have the essay outline and process noted from the first few classes, so you can follow the structure easily.

Mr. Johnson, your algebra teacher, loves to assign homework every night. Math is not your strong suit and has always been your lowest grade. In the past, you have often skipped the homework just because you didn't remember how to do it. However, this year, you have learned to take notes in class, and you have been keeping a notebook for the class. Every night, you sit down at your desk with your homework and notebook, and you can work through those homework problems.

What's more, besides using your notes to complete homework, you take a few minutes at the beginning of class while waiting for the bell to ring and the class to start to review your notes. There is nothing in particular; you're just flipping through and looking back at what the class has been working on. Suddenly, you realize your grades have been getting better, and you have been able to complete the quizzes and tests much quicker than in the past.

Taking notes will not only aid in understanding and remembering material, but it can also help us with future tasks such as essays, homework, and studying.

Ok, I'm sold. How do I take notes?

What's Important

When taking notes, trying to record every little thing is impossible and unreasonable. We have to learn to pick out the most essential information. There are four things to focus on:

• Vocabulary: Vocabulary words and their definitions are definitely something to be sure to write in your notes. You never know when you will need them for an essay, define them for a test, or otherwise use them to prove your knowledge of the material. Besides, understanding and remembering vocabulary words increases our comprehension of the information.
  
  
• Names: Some of the most important information is contained in proper nouns. Whenever the name of a person, group, organization, or place is mentioned, be sure to add it to your notes. This is considered some of the most important information and must be remembered.
  
  
• Numbers: Gone are the days of memorizing Social Studies and History dates, but that doesn't mean they aren't necessary. Numbers are another thing that you need to get into your notes. And they aren't limited to dates—they should include statistics, measurements, and percentages. Basically, any number in the information should be recorded in your notes
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• Key Details: Isn't that everything, though? Well, not exactly. Look for the most important fundamental details. Not everything is necessary. I use an article about chocolate in my note-taking class that lists what isn't in chocolate ("Three Things in Chocolate" para 7). I usually leave that part out. It isn't related to the main topic of the chemicals in chocolate. Weed out and leave the stuff that isn't related out of your notes.

How to Write it Down

Again, we can't write everything we hear or read, and we are often required to be quick with our notes. Therefore, forget using sentences or paragraphs. This is where we need to learn how to abbreviate words, use or create symbols, and include little drawings. Here is a chart that can help get you started.

Sometimes, you'll have an abbreviation or a symbol in your notes that doesn't make sense to anyone else or that you have created on your own. For example, I use a 0 with a slash through it to depict many negative things: no, none, dead, gone, etc. This is a perfectly acceptable practice in note-taking because who will read your notes? Who needs to understand what they say or mean? That's right—you! It isn't very often that a teacher asks for students to pass in their notebooks. Even handwriting doesn't count here, folks. Just make sure you can read them later. They will be useless otherwise!

Notes don't have to be taken with pen and paper. Suppose you are a person who prefers to work digitally. In that case, notes can be taken in Google Docs, Microsoft Word, or any other document-creating software or app. That being said, styles should still be adopted to make it easier to pick out the main ideas and key details you need.

There are about six ways to take notes. They are keyword outlines, list notes, outline notes, concept maps, sketch notes, and Cornell notes. If you want to learn about those, I encourage you to sign up for a note-taking class with Stone Bridges Academy. We will review this information there and practice taking notes on articles and videos in every class, then compare what we've done with each other as a way to learn from one another. The idea is to find your ideal style, even if it is a cross between two, by practicing the different techniques. My notes lean toward outlines with some concept maps and a smidge of sketch notes thrown in. What works for you?

In Conclusion

Note-taking is not a long-lost art. On the contrary, it is still a very needed skill that all students should attempt to acquire. It will come easy to some. Others will need to practice it over and over again. That is ok. Just make it your goal to make an improvement in every note-taking session from the last one. Next time you are preparing for class, remember that notebook! You're gonna need it.

Join a note-taking class with me!

–Misses Dee

About the Author:  My name is Delila Wuori and I've been working in the educational field for over 25 years. It's truly my passion. I love to write and teach a lot of writing classes for all ages. I can show you how to write an article like this! You can visit me at Stone Bridges Academy or check my current writing classes on Outschool. Although my time is a little limited because I have 5 children, one of whom is a toddler, if you don't find anything you need I'd be happy to try to work something out. Please leave a comment below or send an email. I love hearing from my readers and students! 

Visit my profile for Stone Bridges Academy here on IndyEd.com to see more of my article titles. 

“7 Strategies for Success | McGraw Center for Teaching and Learning.” Princeton University, The Trustees of Princeton University, mcgraw.princeton.edu/undergraduates/resources/resource-library/7-strategies-for-success. Accessed 23 May 2024. 

“Curve of Forgetting.” Campus Wellness, University of Waterloo, 24 Mar. 2017, uwaterloo.ca/campus-wellness/curve-forgetting. 

Kids Discover. “Three Things in Chocolate That Make You Happy, and One That Kills Dogs.” Kids Discover, 19 Jan. 2017, kidsdiscover.com/quick-reads/three-things-in-chocolate-that-make-you-happy-and-one-that-kills-dogs/.