It is believed that students take notes more, better and more confidently than schoolchildren. However, if a high school student is ready to master the art of taking notes right now, nothing can stop him. On the contrary, the ability to organize your notes in the best way for yourself will help you better prepare for your studies at the university.
Cornell note-taking method The method got its name from Cornell University in the USA. We divide the page for the abstract into the main space and a rather large left margin. In the main space, you write the text of the lecture. And then, rereading what was written, in the left field, specially note each idea, and also write out keywords and important details. In the classic version of the method, the note field is 2.5 inches, that is, 6.35 cm. Then it is logical to assume that the entire sheet is A4. These notebooks can be found in stationery stores.
The left margin is also for your own lines. The more independent impressions from the educational text you are able to generate, the more space they need - therefore, it makes sense to fill in only one side of the sheet, and endow the other side with the functions of the same note field. Or write on both sides of the sheet, but deviate from the summary of each lesson with more cells or lines.
When repeating the material of such an outline, cover all the text on the right with a card, leaving only the markup of the left field visible, then remove the card and check if you have said everything.
Indent method
You are listening to a lecture - and suddenly you notice that the teacher clearly expresses his thoughts in the direction "from the general to the particular." Perfectly! On the left, write the main concept or main idea. And you write out the subordinate concepts on the right - and the more detailed or insignificant this or that detail of the educational material is, the farther from the left field it is. There is no need to label parts of the resulting structure in any other way.
This scheme is useful for repeating the main points. Although it is impossible to trace a simple chronology on it.
And if the lecturer was chattering, then you won’t be able to compose a synopsis using this method. If you yourself are not very experienced in compiling any kind of notes, then using this method will initially lead you to blots in the notes. It's OK. Practice. And, of course, you must be prepared to link fragmentary concepts together with the help of paraphrase.
Mapping Method
Facts take shape - mapping presents us graphically with the content of the lecture. You become almost an artist with a lecturer - so this is a method for creative people; for those who have developed visual perception and visual memory. A critically thinking author of such an outline can easily edit notes by adding numbers and color coding. So, you get a chance to see exactly how you think. Choose this method if the content of the lecture is well organized or if you don't know the lecturer at all. (More details about the method are given in No. 5, 2009.)
And if you perceive information better by ear? Do not worry: the lecturer already helps you with his intonation.
Both the indentation method and the mapping method are an excellent cure for the consequences of preparing for the USE, which draws the attention of a high school student to the details of the course material and, alas, weans them from seeing its structure as a whole. The USE is useful only when you clearly see this structure and get the necessary element of knowledge from one or another “mental shelf”.
Table method
When you are supposed to be told educational material“according to years”, take a ruler and a pencil with you and try to enter the contents of the lecture in the table. Think about how to title the columns. Most likely, these are the categories that should be explored. Write in cells key ideas, characteristic phrases, meaningful words. When repeating a topic, it will be easy to compare facts, and you will also get rid of the confusion that often accompanies the perception of chronologically presented new knowledge.
Phrase Method
Each new thought is written on a separate line. Everyone new fact- too. Each new topic- needless to say. Everything listed is numbered in a row, and this means that with each line you become even smarter. Another thing is that it remains unclear how important each of the phrases is for understanding the whole topic and how phrases that are not located next to each other are related to each other. Nevertheless, the method is suitable when the topic is explained to you very quickly and nothing can be missed. But such a summary is subject to mandatory subsequent analysis and, possibly, alteration into something more digestible. And it is definitely not suitable if you are taking notes on, say, a thick university textbook.
And notes
Notes need to be re-read, otherwise they will come in handy only before practical exercises and exams, and after the session the material will be forgotten. The word synopsis in Latin means review. It turns out that we, by definition, write notes in order to subsequently review the educational material. To make it convenient for you to actively use the records, do not be lazy to place question and exclamation marks in the text and, using icons that are convenient for you, mark what information to check on your own, what to ask again, what to clarify, what to study in more detail, and where to give more examples.
What to train on
By the start of classes preparatory courses it is best to be able to outline. Where to learn it?
Everything is very simple: you can take notes on intellectual television and radio programs, since they are available. And the textbooks for preparing for the university should be considered for which method of note-taking they would be most suitable for, being read aloud. Outline the manual you like (or especially difficult to understand).
You can look for material for abstracts and outside the home. If your city has a museum, ask if the museum has a lecture hall on arts or science. Attend a series of lectures - and try to come out with perfectly organized information.
You can find out where lectures are still being held (or were held - and their content has already been posted on the Web), on recommendation Internet services. However, the reality is that on the World Wide Web as a whole most of video lectures posted in free access - in English. Until you know how to take notes in Russian-language lectures, it is too early to write down English-language ones. They should be listened to for another purpose - to get acquainted with the vocabulary according to your future specialty and develop listening skills.
Notes made by hand are much better than notes in a notebook. When you write on paper, you are more focused and attentive. However, notes in a notebook often turn into a chaotic collection of squiggles, among which after a couple of weeks it is impossible to find necessary information. The Cornell method will help you out.
Fundamentals of the Cornell method
Any notepad is fine for organizing your notes the Cornell Method. On the sheet, draw a thick horizontal line 5 cm above the bottom edge. Then add a thick vertical line at a distance of 5-7 cm from the left edge. The result is a sheet divided into three sections:
- The right one is for notes.
- Left - for the main thoughts and questions.
- The bottom part is a summary.
Line your notebook yourself, download the PDF sheet at the end of this article, or find it at an office supply store. notebooks for notes on the Cornell method.
Examples of using the Cornell method
The Cornell Method for Recording Lectures
At the top of the sheet, put the date and title of the lecture. In the "Notes" column, outline key points. You don't have to write everything down. The main rule of the Cornell method: less is more. Write down questions that arise during the lecture, and note the points in which you will later understand in more detail.
You fill in the left column when you reread the recorded lecture. Do not put off this task, it is better to conduct an analysis on the same day or at least the next, while the memories are fresh in your head. Most likely, you wrote down some phrases incomprehensibly, immediately correct them.
So, only the main theses taken from the notes and answers to the questions that you asked yourself while listening to the lecturer should fall into the left column.
Summary at the bottom of the sheet - the main idea lectures, a summary of what you heard, written down in your own words. If you can write a summary, then you have learned the material.
Do not tamp the lecture on one sheet, but divide it into logical parts. If it was not possible to transfer a new piece to the next page, mark it with a thick line. You can summarize the lecture as a whole or its individual chapters.
Taking notes using the Cornell Method makes it easy to prepare for exams. After all, the most important thing is to understand the material. And you will learn it during the processing of lectures. To refresh knowledge in memory, it is enough to read your short notes. Try to arrange a test for yourself: close the right half of the sheet with notes and explain each thesis of the lecture from the left column.
The Cornell Method in Meetings and Gatherings
The right column ("Notes") - notes made during the meeting or conversation.
The left column ("Main Thoughts") - the main ideas of the meeting, which you write down after analyzing your notes.
Your notes will almost certainly be chaotic. It's not a lecture. The interlocutor can go astray, jump from topic to topic, lose his mind. Perhaps the meeting will even seem useless to you until you analyze it and highlight the main points.
Summary - the outcome of the meeting.
The Cornell Method for Preparing for Performances
The left column ("Main thoughts") - theses of the speech.
The right column ("Notes") - disclosure of theses (briefly). Mark the points that need to be mentioned.
The summary is the main idea of the report.
By hand-writing theses, you will think about them again, remember. And before the speech, you can repeat the report in a few minutes.
The Cornell Method for Weekly Planning
The left column ("Main thoughts") - plans for the week.
The right column (“Notes”) is a breakdown of plans into small things.
Summary - the main objective weeks.
The Cornell method will get you out of the chaos of messy records. Not only your notes, but also your thoughts will gain a clear structure!
There are several ways to outline text, among them are the following:
Abstracts - briefly formulated main thoughts, provisions of the studied material. Theses succinctly express the essence of what is being read, provide an opportunity to reveal the content. When starting to master the record in the form of theses, it is useful to mark the places in the text itself that most clearly formulate the main idea that the author proves (unless, of course, this is a library book). Often this selection is facilitated by a bold emphasis made in the text itself.
Linear-sequential text recording, in which it is advisable to use poster design tools, such as:
Shift the text of the abstract horizontally, vertically;
highlighting in bold (or other) font especially meaningful words; use of different colors;
underlining;
Conclusion in the frame of the main information.
The “question-answer” method consists in the fact that, dividing the page of the notebook in half with a vertical line, the outliner on the left side of the page independently formulates the questions or problems raised in this text, and on the right side gives answers to them. One of the modifications of the “question-answer” method is a table, where the place of the question is taken by the formulation of the problem raised by the author (lecturer), and the place of the answer is the solution of this problem. Sometimes additional columns may appear in the table: for example, “my opinion”, etc.
1. Write down all the imprint of the source: author, title, year and place of publication. If the text is taken from a periodical (newspaper or magazine), then write down its name, year, month, number, day, place of publication.
2. Select the fields on the left or right, you can on both sides.
The pages of the original, the structural sections of the article or book (titles of paragraphs, subheadings, etc.) are marked on the left, the main problems are formulated. On the right - ways of fixing the read information.
A diagram with fragments is a way of taking notes that allows you to more clearly reveal the structure of the text, while fragments of the text (key words, phrases, explanations of all kinds) in combination with graphics help to create a rational and concise summary.
simple circuit- a method of note-taking, close to a diagram with fragments, for which the note-taker does not write explanations, but must be able to give them orally. This method requires highly qualified note taking. Otherwise, such an abstract will not be used.
A parallel method, in which the abstract is drawn up on two sheets in parallel or one sheet is divided in half by a vertical line and entries are made on the right and left sides of the sheet.
However, it's better to use different ways taking notes to record the same material.
The combined abstract is the pinnacle of mastering rational note-taking. At the same time, they skillfully use all listed methods, combining them in one abstract (one of the types of abstract flows freely into another, depending on the outlined text, on the desire and skill of the outliner). It is with the combined summary that the level of preparation and individuality of the student is most manifested.
designation of frequently used words with initial and final letters
- squeezing a word by not adding vowels (consonants)
- mixed reception (reduction of vowels in endings)
- reduction of words by breaking the outline into vowels
- omissions of letters and designation of missing letters with a hyphen
- reduction of a word by indicating parts of words at the beginning and at the end of several letters
– abbreviation for common pronouns
Shorthand
And this is how, for example, abbreviations of frequently occurring endings may look. For example, in the words "meaning", "movement", "flow" and other similar ones, we can use shorthand:
Hyperabbreviation
Instead of the usual abbreviations, it is much more effective to use such techniques as hyperabbreviation (instead of a whole word, the initial letter is used, surrounded by a line), pictography and hieroglyphics (using drawings), special ways of recording endings.
For example, here is how the phrase "Without a revolutionary theory there can be no revolutionary struggle" might look like using a hyperabbreviation. Instead of the long word revolutionary, we use the letter "R" enclosed in a circle.
Quantization
quantifier – logical operation, which gives a quantitative characteristic of the area of objects: "all", "each", "some", "any", "any", "several", "exists".
Using pictograms
Pictography - displays the content of the message in the form of a picture, conditional symbolism is possible.
Collapsing text by using a macro context
Phrase conversion
Spatial Record
Using a table entry
Abstract processing
mental map
Note-taking in the form of a memory card is becoming popular. The author of this method of fixing information is the famous and progressive psychologist Tony Buzan. The process takes place as follows: the so-called maps of visual images are built, which create a deep emotional impression, which significantly increases the possibility of memorizing the material. This method requires less effort than traditional note-taking, because taking notes is relaxed and creative. When building memory maps, the main ideas of the information received become more concise, clear and understandable, the logical connections between them are indicated. Maps can change as you wish, such as expanding through repetition. Properly organized repetition allows you to easily and firmly reinforce what you have learned in memory.
The process of building memory maps:
1 Use various graphic means (drawings, symbols, arrows, different fonts). All of them are multi-colored.
2 The sheet is placed horizontally, thereby allocating more space for the drawing (outline).
3 In the center of the page indicate the main idea.
4 Multi-colored pens draw lines from the main idea, each of which is a specific part of the main theme.
5 Each line is signed with a keyword
6 The abstract can be detailed, i.e., add lines.
7 Keywords are indicated in block letters, and the font size is chosen according to the significance of the keyword.
8 The map should have many drawings and symbols.
9 Arrows will show connections between ideas
The art of note-taking is rarely taught at school and college, although this skill may turn out to be one of the key skills that ensure academic success. How Bill Gates structures his notes, what is the Cornell method and who promoted mind-mapping the most - 5 useful techniques note-taking for those who still prefer paper and pen.
Cornell method
Cornell University professor Walter Pauk developed his famous note-taking method in the middle of the last century. To use it, you first have to make the appropriate markup on an A4 sheet.
Two horizontal lines should be drawn, one at the top to mark the space for the title and date, and the other at the bottom so that five or six sentences can be written below that summarize the content of the outline on this page. In the remaining middle part of the sheet, you need to draw another long vertical line dividing it into two unequal columns - the one on the left should be much narrower than the one on the right (it is recommended to make it a little more than six centimeters wide).
While listening to a lecture or reading a textbook, take notes in your usual manner in a wide column. It is better to leave a little empty space between sentences so that there is an opportunity to add something else to them.
After the lecture, fill in the left column - highlight the most important ideas, names, dates, formulate questions, and so on. And in the next 24 hours, you will also need to fill in the bottom field - in a few sentences, formulating the essence of your entries on this page.
This note-taking method is very popular in America, and in some educational institutions they even try to make it mandatory. He encourages students to reread their notes, supplement them and rework. But, if the student does not return to his notes, there is, in general, no special benefit from such a design of the material.
Bill Gates Method
In 2003, a young entrepreneur, Rob Howard, met Bill Gates and, clearly impressed by this meeting, wrote a blog post about her. Perhaps most of all, Howard's readers were struck by the fact that during the negotiations, Bill Gates (for a moment, one of the wealthiest people in the world) took notes himself, by hand, and not in a laptop.
Howard also describes a bit the way Gates structured the material. The sheet of his notebook was marked into squares, in each of which he wrote down a block related to a certain topic. For example, one of the boxes at the bottom of the sheet was dedicated to questions that Gates had during the negotiations.
Some bloggers believe that Gates' squares are a reworking of the traditional Cornell method and urge readers to tailor the system to their own needs rather than just trying to copy the style of Microsoft's creator.
Method of mental maps (mind-mapping)
Mind-mapping is a popular writing technique where you should always start in the middle of the sheet. In a circle or in a frame right in the center of the page, you need to indicate the main concept that will be discussed in the abstract.
And then, with the help of branches in different directions, write down in new circles the key words and ideas associated with it. If you're going to use this method, it's best to stock up on at least three pens. different colors to make different branches more visible.
The main popularizer of this technique was Tony Buzan, an English psychologist and TV presenter who actively used the method of mental maps in the mid-1970s on his TV show Use Your Brain. Today, this method is often resorted to by fans of brainstorming.
Suggestion Method
For those who are not yet ready to try new non-linear note-taking methods, we can advise the so-called sentence method. It is very similar to the standard transcription method - where you simply try to record everything that the lecturer says on the sheet. The only difference is that each sentence here must be written from a new line and numbered in order.
Numbering will make it easy to make a reference from one sentence to another with just one small note (for example, "see #67") - no more need to understand the confusing arrows that cross out half of the entries.
flow method
If you're tired of taking shorthand notes in your notes, you can try this note-taking method recently formulated by coach Scott Young. It is based on this idea: listening to a lecture is not a passive process, in order to really benefit from a lecture, you need to think and develop your own ideas.
Therefore, in a summary made in this way, you should write down only the key points of the lecture and give free rein to your comments. It is clear that such notes will be quite different from the classical notes, so just in case, take a voice recorder to the lecture for safety.
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