Here is a useful study skills aid for note-taking in lectures. From my experience teaching academic reading and writing, note-taking is something students often struggle with.
Note-taking is a technique that you need to develop in order to organise and understand the information you hear. You can download this free template to help you organise lecture information into clear and easy to understand chunks which will make it easier for you to process lecture content.
Remember to:
- Use the objectives section to set out what you what to achieve by the end of the lecture. Think about why the lecture is important – by the end of the lecture, what do you want to understand?
- Make a list of the key points. What are the most important points you need to remember?
- Use the information, detail & further examples section to expand on the key points, include anything important the lecturer says here.
- Include a short summary at the end of your lecture. It’s best to do this after the lecture when you review the notes you made during the lecture. Cover these and try to write a short summary of what you can remember without looking at the details. Keep this summary short, within the small space provided.
- Make an action plan of what self study to do next. What further questions do you have? What do you need to re-read? What don’t you understand and need further clarification on? What further reading do you plan? Remember the key to good grades is reading around your subject. It is simply not enough to rely solely on information from your lectures which is why this self-study and further reading section is important.
You can download your free copy here
Have fun!
~Nafisa