NEED A HAND? USE YOUR NOTE-TAKING STRATEGIES!

This week’s TECH assignment is on NOTE TAKING!!!! A skill that every college student must have is to know how to take good notes. I have trouble deciding what I should write in my notes. Sometimes I forget that my notes do not have to contain everything, just the most important things such key concepts and terms. I focus too much on trying to capture everything, when in reality I won’t have the spare mental “cycles” to recognize what’s truly important!

Dr. Blumin has provided us with a variety of note-taking strategies that are useful in helping is take down notes for almost every class. I have two exams coming up in the following two-week for my MAT 194 and HTW 303 courses. I tried using several note-taking strategies which I found to be very effective, such at T Notes strategy for my Math and Chemistry courses because it breaks down notes into formula and solutions, the PowerPoint Notes strategy since most of my professors post their lecture notes on blackboard, and last but not least the 1 Plus 3 Note-Taking Method which I found to be useful for every course. Although these strategies worked well for me, I was limited to describe how I used the 1 Plus 3 Notes Strategy and they the Plug-In Note Strategy. I had already used the 1 Plus 3 Notes Strategy, so for this week’s TECH I decided to explain how it helped me study better in my HTW 303 and MAT 194 course.

I am both a visual and kinesthetic LEARNER, which means I have to take ACTION when I am studying. I need to have my notes set out clearly so I can be able to read it easily and the 1 Plus 3 Notes Strategy is the perfect way to get me started on my studies.

For my HTW 303 course, my professor usually just reads off of Power Point lecture notes and posts them on Black Board so it was fairly difficult to write all of my notes into the note section of the 1 Plus 3 Notes Strategy. I figured that if I just noted key concepts and terms then it would be easier for me to create a graphic organizer, which would visually represent the key terms and concepts, and surely it did. I took one day’s worth of a lesson and condensed into a small study guide filled with key terms and concepts that I would need to know for my upcoming exam. The chapter topic was about Indoor Environments. I then listed what MATERIALS I could use to study the information I had listed in my notes. For Section A, I listed subtopics that fall under Indoor Environments. In Section B, I noted causes, sources, and ways to prevent/ reduce problems of Indoor Environments. From that information that I listed, I anticipated questions that may be on my upcoming exam.

In my MAT 194 course, I followed the same steps for the same strategy, however, I broke my 1 Plus 3 Notes down into a topic per page just because there is so much information and steps that need to be known in for math. In Section A, I listed the two topics which I was focusing on which was Linear and Exponential Function. Since those topics are similar, I differentiate how each topic is different/similar in Section B. I also listed formulas that can help me tell the difference between Linear and Exponential Functions. After writing out these notes, I then wrote a few test questions that I thought my professor would ask based on these notes.

I found this method of note-taking can be well suited to any of my courses that requires me to review the material multiple times because the information is difficult or unfamiliar. The 1 Plus 3 Note-Taking Method incorporates a combination of other strategies as well, such as anticipating test question. This method uses the both comprehensive and skeletal notes because it is brief and concise and also has details. In addition, by using this note taking strategy you can get a clear image of what key concepts and terms you need to study for. If you need help with studying I would suggest using the 1 Plus 3 Note Taking Strategy. Good notes are the corner stone to achieving success in a test!!!!