How to write notes that you actually can remember

While turning the pages of your notebook, does your brain reply with a blank feedback? Research shows that human brain tends to lose almost 40% any new information within the first 24 hours of reading or hearing it. However, you can retain almost 100% if you follow the science of note taking.  Before we get to that, the most important questions are: What do notes do?  Why do we take/make notes?

One of the reasons people have trouble taking effective notes is that they are not really sure what notes are for. Many people, students and professionals alike, attempt to capture a complete record of a lecture, book, or meeting in their notes - to create, in effect, minutes. This is a recipe for failure. Trying to write every last fact and figure like that leaves no room for thinking about what you are writing and how it fits together. The purpose of note-taking is simple: To help you study better and more quickly. This means your notes do not have to contain everything, they have to contain the most important things. And if you are focused on capturing everything, you will not have the spare mental "cycles" to recognise what is truly important. This means that later when you are studying for a big test or preparing a term paper, you will have to wade through all that extra garbage to uncover the few nuggets of important information.

While taking notes we have to be active, being active does not indicate the level of interaction with the pen and paper, it means we have to actively engage with the material mentally.  This is the very first essentiality of note taking.

This leads to the second mystery, what to note and what not to note.

What to write down:

Your focus while taking notes should be two-phases. First, what is new to you? There is no point in writing down facts you already know. If you already know that the Independence Day is on 26th March, there is no reason to write that down.

Second, what is relevant? Try to find out information that is most likely to be of use later, whether on a test, in a chapter, or in completing an assignment. Focus on points that directly relate to or illustrate your subject/reading (which means you will have to have actually do the reading). The kinds of information to pay special attention to are dates of events, names of people, theories and definitions, arguments and debates, images, tables, exercise and your own questions.

There can be many or various techniques to take notes such as outlining, mind mapping or the Cornell system, some people use highlighters or coloured pens to outline the headings; others give side notes, you may have your own techniques. But simply the bottom line is that your system has to reflect the way you understand properly. Hopefully in this semester notes will reflect well on the grades.

The writer is a student of Accounting Information System (AIS) at United International University, [email protected]