The more time you spend up front taking notes, organizing your thoughts and materials, the better you are off when it comes to preparing for the exams. You won't have to scramble finding all the explanations and definitions that you remember "having heard or read somewhere" in the last minute. That fact alone significantly reduces stress and makes you much more comfortable as the semester goes on. Listening also makes lectures much more interesting, and taking notes is a way of focusing on what is being said in lecture. If you actually follow the lecture, it will make much more sense to you than only a few sound bites that you pick up here and there.

Note-taking tips

Here are some tips for taking efficient notes in lecture:

• Come to lecture regularly - this way you will be able to follow the logical structure of theoretical concepts and case studies presented by the instructor.
• Use a notebook of standard (8 1/2 by 11) size, or a three-ring binder, to keep your notes. These will allow you to reorganize your notes and to add handouts and additional material that is relevant for class.
• Keep all notes and materials for one class in one place, separated from those for other classes.
• Carry extra pens and pencils.
• Write your name, date, course number, and page on every sheet. Writing the dates will help you keep track of your notes and organize them at a later time.
• Try to keep eye contact with the lecturer when you are not writing in order to stay focused.
• Take your notes as completely, clearly, and legibly as possible so that you can still read and use them weeks or months later (the semester is 15 weeks long, you will need to remember at the end what you wrote down in the first weeks).
• Make sure you are not copying down what the instructor says verbatim - learn to paraphrase in your own words what you are hearing.
• Leave blanks where you missed or misunderstood information, and fill the gaps after your lecture or as soon as possible. You can either talk to your classmates, your TAs, or your instructor to clarify difficult points.
• Try to develop your own system of enumerating and indenting, which will help you better organize your notes and thoughts.
• Also, develop your own abbreviations; use abbreviations that you will still be able to decipher weeks later, and try to be consistent in the abbreviations you use... this makes life much easier when you use your notes to prepare for exams, or when you simply want to look up some definitions or concepts.
• Use symbols such as asterisks for emphasis, highlight or underline important words, terms, or concepts.
• Mark or separate assignments which are mixed into the lecture, and always mark due dates for assignments in your calendar!
• Separate your thoughts from that of the lecturer. Write down on one side of you page, what s/he says, and write your comments/thoughts on the other side of the page.
• Be alert for cues (e.g., when the instructor says "this would make an interesting exam question", you may want to take note.
• Record examples where they are illustrating complicated concepts. Most often, it is enough to just make a note about a specific case study and to jot down a couple of keywords to trigger your memory later. Don't even try to write down lengthy descriptions that are more confusing than anything else.
• Listen, especially at the end of the lecture. If the instructor has not paced his/her lecture well, s/he may cram half the content in the last 10-15 minutes.
• Record additional ideas of your own after the lecture, or on the margin of your notebook.
• Review your notes after class - get into the 5-minute habit! Take that much time as soon as possible to change, organize, add, delete, summarize, or clarify misunderstandings.
• Try to find a study partner at the beginning of the semester and meet once a week with him/her to exchange notes and ideas, and to learn omissions, mistakes, and another person's opinions about your interpretations.
• Don't recopy notes after the class - your time is better spent reviewing the notes you have.
• Generally speaking, taping a lecture is a waste of time. Again, your time is better spent looking at your notes and the course readings. The key exception are students for whom English is a second language.
   

Cornell note-taking system: the five R's of note taking
 

Consult the picture below when reading about the five R's of note taking.  Keep these in mind when taking notes in class.

Record: During the lecture, record in the main column as many meaningful facts and ideas as you can. Write legibly.

Reduce: As soon after as possible, summarize these facts and ideas concisely in the Cue Column. Summarizing clarifies meanings and relationships, reinforces continuity, and strengthens memory.

Recite: Cover the Note Taking Area, using only your jottings in the Cue Column, say over the facts and ideas of the lecture as fully as you can, not mechanically, but in your own words. Then, verify what you have said.

Reflect: Draw out opinions from your notes and use them as a starting point for your own reflections on the course and how it relates to your other courses. Reflection will help prevent ideas from being inert and soon forgotten.

Review : Spend 10 minutes every week in quick review of your notes, and you will retain most of what you have learned.
 

Note Taking Strategies

Before class

• Develop a mind-set geared toward listening.  Keep in mind that there is a big difference between hearing something and really listening and absorbing it.
• Test yourself over the previous lecture while waiting for the next one to begin.
• Skim relevant reading assignments to acquaint yourself with main ideas, new technical terms, etc.
• Enhance your physical and mental alertness: eat a snack before class, sit in the front and/or center of the room, focus your attention on the speaker.
• Choose notebooks that will enhance your systematic note-taking: a separate notebook with full-sized pages is recommended for each course.

During class

• Listen for the structure and information in the lecture
• Resist distractions, emotional reactions or boredom.
• Pay attention to the speaker for verbal, postural, and visual clues to what's important.
• Label important points and organizational clues (e.g., main points, examples, unanswered questions).
• If your lecturer has an accent you find hard to understand or has mannerisms you find distracting, relax and attend even more carefully to the content of the lecture.
• When possible, translate the lecture into your own words, but if you can't, don't let it worry you into inattention!
• Be consistent in your use of form, abbreviation, etc.
• If you feel you don't take enough notes, divide your page into 5 sections and try to fill each part every 10 minutes (or work out your own formula).
• Ask questions if you don't understand.
• Instead of closing your notebook early and getting ready to leave, listen carefully to information given toward the end of class; summary statements may be of particular value in highlight main points; there may be possible quiz questions, etc.

After class

• Clear up any questions raised by the lecture by asking either the teacher or classmates.
• Fill in missing points or misunderstood terms from text or other sources.
• Edit your notes, labeling main points, adding recall clues and questions to be answered. Key points in the notes can be highlighted with different colors of ink.
• Make note of your ideas and reflections, keeping them separate from those of the speaker.

Occasionally

• Review your notes: glance at your recall clues and see how much you can remember before rereading the notes.
• Look for the emergence of themes, main concepts, methods of presentation over the course of several lectures
• Make up and answer possible test questions.
  
   

Adapted from U of M Student Writing Center (2002)