The pandemic has changed the way that students learn and take notes, but how many of the new habits you’ve picked up are actually doing you any good? Immediate convenience has begun to play an even bigger role in our decision-making, and we have the tools to prioritize this. Here are five tips to help maximize your efficiency in note-taking:
- Go to lectures… but only if it’s safe
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Now that all my lectures are recorded, it’s so tempting to skip my early morning classes to watch them later at twice the speed, but this makes it all too easy to fall behind. Now that I have medical school classes everyday, this is not feasible for my schedule. Beyond that, it is so difficult to focus and stay engaged when I am just staring at a screencast of a powerpoint for hours. The combination of making eye contact with your professors, seeing students around you focused on taking notes and being forced to sit and learn material at a set pace often ensures that you get more out of the lecture in one sitting than you do watching the recording at whatever pace you allow yourself. Better yet, you can pick up on your teacher’s cues and note what material to prioritize in your studies rather than hyperfocusing on every tiny detail your professor says in the recording just because you can. Recorded lectures are better to use as a safety net in case you missed important information, but they should never be a crutch and definitely not the primary way that you learn your material (as long as it’s relatively safe to go in person).
- Ask questions… but try to push yourself to answer them yourself first
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Getting information down clearly the first time you hear it is ideal, but most people need more time to process and compartmentalize information before they run into questions. I have also noticed that having to take the extra steps to unmute zoom classes to ask questions or to write in the chat seems to have increased the intentionality with which questions are asked. You shouldn’t force yourself to ask questions immediately, as writing your inquiry in the margins of your notes and giving yourself time to simmer on new knowledge may lead you to the answer yourself. This is a more effective way to ensure you remember this information for longer. It also looks better to your professors when they see that you have made an attempt at coming to a conclusion on your own before running to ask them for help.
- Handwrite notes… but with a twist
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At this point, pretty much everyone has heard all the evidence about how handwritten notes are super effective, but it can be bulky and unsustainable in the long term. If it matches your budget, getting an iPad is a great investment for your academic career, as it makes studying and note-taking much more portable and easy to archive for later usage. It’s also so much easier to add diagrams and pictures to your notes as well as to correct mistakes in pen and highlighter. I recommend getting the Notability app to do your note taking, but there are many comparable apps like Goodnotes, Evernote and Onenote that students have reviewed at length on the internet to aid you in your decision-making.
- Color code notes… but keep it simple
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I used to start all my school years armed with new gel pens or Mildliners (or the infinite color wheel afforded by Notability) hoping to become some super aesthetic and organized student. However, this wasted too much time and brain space. I decided that juggling what shade of blue I should use for a subpoint vs. a sub-subpoint wasn’t worth spacing out of lecture for and it actually made it feel more tedious to take notes, so I’d suggest reducing the complexity. Stick to one basic color like black or blue to write most of your notes and then you can use red for important details or even some localized color coding for certain diagrams depending on the class.
- Make study material… but it should be your 2nd line of studying
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Anki is an online intelligent flashcard software that’s very popular among medical students, but its benefits can apply to many other students as well. It is so easy to passively understand your notes, but this software forces you to actively recall information until you are able to come up with it on your own. Additionally, it has a built-in mechanism for spaced repetitions where it has cards due at specific later times to prevent you from forgetting the material. I think a lot of people complain that making Anki (or any other) flashcards is too time-consuming, but this should not be the case if you have studied the material once already and begin testing yourself as you make your flashcards. This ensures that you remain engaged with your material and get in another review so long as you don’t simultaneously listen to distracting music or watch Netflix.
It’s understandable that it might not be feasible to make Anki flashcards for each and every one of your classes or to go all out for each one, especially when some of your classes are bound to be Gen Eds that you feel do not apply to you in the future. However, pick and choose a few pieces of advice to modify for your more central classes to further what you want to do in your life and career.