Week 6: Taking Lecture Notes

      Assalammualaikum, im back! 😉 For today, we learnt about taking lecture notes. Before we start our lesson, our lecturer gave us some questions and we needed to answer it eiher 'YES' or 'NO'. Out of 10, i only got 3 questions right. It really showed that I really need to learn on how to take an effective lecture notes. For this topic, it is divided into two parts. Part one consists of taking lecture notes, while the other part is effective note taking system.

      First, we learnt on why we take lecture notes. One of the reasons we take lecture notes are to obtain more accurate record of information. This is because people can't really remember each things accurately. Well, unless you were born to be genius. Next, we take notes to intepret, condense and organize information. It is important to keep your notes organize and not to mess up them especially when we need it for examination. We also learnt on how to take lecture notes. First thing first, we need to read the text before class. This is because, by reading the text will allow us to build up the background of the topic. It also helps us to identify main ideas of the lecture and organize notes easily. By reading the text before class will helps to understand the topic better and it will be easier for us to take notes.

      On this part, we also learnt to get ready to take notes. It will be easier to take notes if we sit in front of the class. There will be less distraction for our sights so we can hear and see better. Other than that, we can find other interested motivated friends to sit in the first few rows of the class with us. In this part also, friends play a big role in our life. If we befriend with someone lazy, I'm afraid we might get influenced by them. So, we need to choose who we want to befriend with wisely. Lastly, we learnt to always review the notes we took during the last class while wating for class to begin. This may help us to memorize back what we have learn in the class before.

      For the second part of this topic, we learnt about effective note taking system. Our lecturer introduced us to a new method that we can use to take notes. We learnt about The Cornell note taking system. It is an excellent way that can be used to take notes as it is divided into three column. It has recall/cue column and summary column at the end. All we need to do is to write notes in notes column and write down the main point at the cue column. While in summary column, we just need to conclude about what we had learnt for that day.

      One of the things that can be included in notes is the heading. It is important to always notes the main points that are made during lecture. The heading also lead us to what topic we were taking notes about. If we wrote the notes without understanding the main point, it may be hard or maybe we might wrote down the false information. Next, we can include the details that related to the main points. We can write any facts and explanations that explain the main points mentioned. Anything that is repeated and spelled out also can be included in the notes. Usually when the lecturer repeat something related to our study, it might be important and should be focused more.

      And lastly, we learnt about reviewing the notes. We could review our notes by recite from the heading. All we have to do is to read the heading and try to gather as much information as we can under it. This helps us to see whether we can memorized it or not. We also can review it by reciting from the recall. We can use the recall questions to test our memory of main points and the supporting points. It also can help us learn to make specific answers to specific questions. And lastly, we cant review it by talk about the information with others. By putting the informationin your own words and explain it to others make you understand better. We can get together with friends and review the notes. Overall, the lesson for today teach me a lot of tips on how we can take lecture notes effectively.