The Ultimate Guide to College Note-Taking

College will be starting up again in August for those of us who have become slaves to the system and taken out more loans than we know what to do with. Since we're paying ungodly amounts of money to be there, we might as well get something out of it.

Ask any college student and they'll tell you that taking notes is important. Actually, you probably won't even have to ask. They'll just sort of start talking about it if you spend enough time approaching their event horizon. Most full-time college students have fallen so far into the singularity (i.e., homework) that they have no time to think about anything else. They physically cannot comprehend anything but school. Especially if it's finals week. Even light cannot escape. Approach with extreme caution.

"Yeah, I just got out of my 8 a.m. Llama Breeding class."

But most people don't take notes well, nor do they even take good notes. Their notes will never be good enough to be of use for anything but sweet, sweet kindling for the annual end-of-term bonfire. That's why it's important not only to take notes, but also to take good notes, and take them well.

The biggest thing that trips note-takers up is trying to write down everything the instructor says. You're in college because you're trying not to be a failure, so, you know, don't attempt to write down everything your instructor says, because that will make you a failure. It's a really simple concept.

Your instructor is, like most of us, a person. They're probably old, so sometimes they'll talk about things that aren't important or relevant at all. The fact that such-and-such topic is vaguely related to Dr. Blah's cousin's dog ten years ago isn't something you even remotely need to write down. Spend that time going over the rest of your notes instead. You'll known how to do that after you read this.


The secret to writing down what's most important is that instructors almost always tell you what's most important. They'll pause for dramatic emphasis or even ask whether the class understands what was just talked about. Those are massive clues that you should be writing something down to go over it again later. Sometimes instructors write things on a chalkboard or whiteboard; those are definitely important too.

Write the important things down in your own words, too, if you can. You'll create more neural pathways (big word for "brain memory stuff") if you understand what the instructor says, think about it, and re-write it in your own words. If you're just mindlessly copying everything down, you won't learn as much.

Other tips for good note taking:

• Notes are pretty much no good if you can't use them to study later on, so make sure your handwriting is actually legible. It's been proven that the physical act of writing notes helps you remember things better, but obviously it also helps if you can actually read it again later.

• Put a little header on each page of notes that tells you what's actually on the page. You can cover a lot of topics in one class session, so "February 21" might not tell you a lot about what you're reading, but "February 21 - Llama Breeding - Important Discoveries" is a lot more specific and less likely to get lost in the hellish pulp mill of your school bag.

• Consider stapling your notes together and/or writing page numbers on them. Trust me, you'll thank me when you're still awake at 3 a.m. before your final exam trying to figure out which order your llama breeding notes go in.

If you're still not convinced that taking good notes well is a good idea (p.s., you're wrong) then you're forgetting the one tiny thing you'll hate yourself for later: open note tests. That's right, some instructors actually let you look at the answers while you're gripping your sweaty pencil and trying to remember whether or not you left the toaster oven on. Anything but Napoleon, you mentally whisper.

Hey Bonaparte, you wouldn't be in this situation if you decided not to invade Russia. Take good notes well for every class you don't plan on failing, every time.

Every single day.

So what actually needs to go in your notes? It depends on the class and the instructor. If your instructor is big on names and dates or the class focuses on them, you'll probably need to memorize them for the exam, because instructors are cruel like that. But if your instructor is more of a big-picture person who doesn't necessarily care whether the names and dates are correct as long as you understand the main idea, then write down stuff that will help you learn the main idea.

My Mastering the University Experience class (sounds corny, I know, but it is actually helpful) suggests using the Cornell method to take notes. Cornell themselves explain it a lot better than I ever could. They're an Ivy League school that's actually trying to impress people, though, so their "choice of diction" may be slightly more "orotund" and "bombastic" and "professional".

Don't worry, I was scared of the Cornell website too.

I haven't had a lot of success with it since I'm more of an auditory learner, but it seems like it could be useful if this kind of spatial organization helps you out.

The basic Cornell method rundown is this: you take notes (good notes, like we discussed) in the big section. After you've done that, you pull out key terms (dates, names, discoveries, inventions, pretty much anything you would find bolded in the textbook) and put those in the little section on the left. Then you can cover the note-taking section and do a sort of impromptu flash card session to make sure you understand why the key terms are, well, key terms. Finally, after class is over, on your own time, summarize the absolute most important points at the bottom. Pretend this is note-taking Twitter; fit as much information into a few words as you can.

Obviously if the Cornell method is no good for you, don't use it; you'll just be wasting your time. Instead, try color coding-- writing vocabulary terms in blue, important dates in green, whatever-- to keep your notes organized. Try writing things on index cards if you really like to condense. (Another bonus of index cards: you can shuffle them around. I recommend numbering them in case you forget which order they're supposed to go in, though.)

If not having enough time to write notes is your problem, try recording the lecture on your phone (or some other primitive audio recording device) and listening to it again on your own time. Bonus: you can pause to make sure you've written everything down, jump around in the lecture, fast forward through the creepy guy asking irrelevant questions to stall for time, etc. Most, if not all, instructors will be totally accommodating of your using an audio recorder if you explain it to them beforehand. Your campus might also have disability services that allow you to officially bring an audio recorder that your instructor will have to allow. If all else fails, you can also talk to disability services about note-taking services, where someone whose job is to take notes will take notes for you. Disability services can also help you even if you're only temporarily disabled because you broke both your wrists auditioning for Jackass over spring break.

Until now, we've been talking about taking notes on what your instructor says or writes during lecture. Lecture notes aren't the only type of notes, though. If you take notes while reading your textbook, not only will you be a huge nerd, you'll also remember more of the text and do better on the exam. Really smart people have said this and I'm repeating it now because, well, they're really smart. If you stop to make sure you understand what you're reading, you're more likely to remember it. Duh.

Start by reading the bold chapter headings. They'll literally tell you the most important points in the chapter you're trying to slog through while you finish your lukewarm Starbucks. You can use these as your note headings. Better yet, turn them into questions. Instead of writing Procedures of Llama Breeding at the top of the page and wondering what you're doing with your life, you can ask yourself "What are the procedures of llama breeding?" and answer it with bullet points that you can then-- shock and awe-- pull right out of the text. This is what the book's authors did when they wrote the book. You're just doing it in reverse.

This guy probably took notes while reading. You want to be like this guy.

Asking yourself questions is probably the most important part of making sure you're actually learning what you're reading instead of just letting your eyes skim over the page and nodding intermittently. Important questions to ask: What is (key term)? How does (concept) relate to what I already know? Am I doing anything similar to this in another class, and if so, what is it and how is it related? What was the author of this book trying to convey in this paragraph?

Remember, this is still note-taking, so the biggest mistake you can make is taking notes on everything you're reading. Don't just copy the book in your own words; you'll waste time and get so frustrated that you'll never want to read about llama breeding again. Write down things you think the instructor would put on the test, and then write a little more. Stay one step ahead of that tweed-wearing egghead.

Some more tips on taking reading notes:

• If you use a highlighter, don't highlight everything. Stick to important words or definitions and try not to highlight entire paragraphs. If you highlight entire paragraphs, you will eventually end up highlighting whole pages in at least six different colors. You'll end up with a fluorescent headache and no understanding of what's actually important. 

• Read with a dictionary. A dead tree dictionary, if at all possible. Why? You'll create new links in your brain by learning a new word. You'll deepen your understanding of the text. An actual paper dictionary is preferable to Dictionary.com on your phone because you're a college student and your attention span is only slightly better than that of a five-year-old in a toy store. You look up one definition and suddenly you have to check your email. You have to text your grandma. You have to research something for another class. Trust me. I know.

I know, I know, the only flaw with this essay is that taking notes is boring and it sucks. But every single instructor you have is going to respect you so much more if you take notes in their class. You'll look like a super genius. You'll learn more. You'll learn better. You'll get a really bad wrist cramp. But it will be so worth it because not only will you be the world's youngest llama breeding expert, but your mom will also hang your midterm on the fridge. 

"It's good, but is it refrigerator good?"

In college, you really need to take notes to make sure you understand what you're learning. This is not high school, where interrupting class to ask a question every three seconds makes you look like Jesus to your classmates and Dennis the Menace to your teacher. Write any questions you may have in your notes, because this is college, where you and your classmates are paying lots of money to be here. Constantly interrupting class in college just makes you look like a jerk with too much money. It's in your best interest to learn as much as you can in all your classes. Taking good notes well is probably the easiest way to make sure your college experience is not at all reminiscent of Justin Bieber's downward spiral. And trust me, you do not wanna go there.