Taking notes
How to take quality notes that are relevant to you
At the very beginning of university studies, it is sometimes difficult to find one's own note-taking style. In addition, you need to be able to adapt to the various course materials, as well as to the different professors and their teaching methods. Whether you choose a paper or digital medium, it is essential to feel comfortable with the chosen medium.
Benefits of note taking
- Enables information to be sorted and the essentials to be filtered out.
- Enables to structure the content and to reflect efficiently.
- Enables the material to be memorized more easily through transcription.
- Promotes concentration
- Serves as a basis for review sheets
- Serves as an additional source of information
Writing by hand
- The hand movement stimulates the brain in different ways, e.g. spatial geometry, so that information can be better retained.
- Since one cannot write as fast by hand as by computer, an initial selection of information is made and the relevant elements to remember will be identified immediately. When students write by hand, they tend to rephrase and summarize the information, which has a positive effect on the learning process.
- Reduces distraction compared to information that can be accessed through a computer (emails, surfing the web, etc.).
- Allows to create small explanatory schemes faster and more creatively.
- Makes it possible to keep track of things and serves as practice for the written exam.
Writing on a digital medium
- Allows you to take notes more quickly, for example, in a course with a lot of content.
- Allows you to organize and organize the material more easily.
- Allows you to add information later.
- Allows you to integrate tables or precise graphics more easily.
- Allows you to share your notes more easily with other students.
Tips
Important is to learn how to summarize information, because writing whole sentences is pointless. It prolongs re-reading and burdens the brain with superfluous information as well as unnecessary connecting words.
- Your notes should be brief.
- Use abbreviations.
- Distinguish between your class notes and your personal reflections.
- Reread your notes on the same day to structure and augment them.
Tools
Organizational software
Application for creating checklists
Unifr offers
Taking notes - MyPLE
Managing your collection of documents - MyPLE
Self-study online courses Digital Skills