Lecture Note-Taking: Student Success Workshops
Lecture Note-Taking: Student Success Workshops
Learning Support
North Vancouver Campus
Student Success
Workshops
Lecture Note-Taking
BR267
604.984.1744
www.capilanou.ca/services
Prepared by:
Alison Parry, Learning Specialist
2
Lecture Note-Taking
Introduction
Taking good lecture notes is a difficult but essential skill as your notes act, first and foremost as
a written record of lecture material that you will study from later. The act of note-taking itself
helps to keep you focused on the lecture and starts to put information into memory. While
many people think of note-taking as something you do during a lecture, effective note-taking is
in fact a three part process. These three parts include:
1. Preparing to take notes
2. Taking concise, organized notes during the lecture
3. Reviewing the notes after class
a) Recording Strategies
Always date and number the pages of your notes in case they get out of order.
Give each set of notes a title based on the topic being discussed. You can
usually add the title to your notes before the class starts by looking at your
course outline.
Listen for the main ideas and topics covered the lecture and make sure you get
these down in the form of headings.
Record the related supporting details in point form underneath the heading. If
supporting details are not related to the main headings, your notes will be
difficult to understand and study from later.
Watch for the clues teachers often use for emphasizing main points. These
include:
writing material on the board,
repetition – the same ideas is presented several times,
emphasis – this can be judged by tone of voice and gesture and/or the
amount of time a teacher spends on the topic,
word signals; e.g., “It is important to note that….”,
the use of ordinals: e.g., “First, next, also, in addition, finally, etc.”, and
introductions and /or summaries given at the start or end of class.
Do not try to write everything down, as you will get left behind. Instead, try to
paraphrase the speaker by summarizing and rewording the information into a
reduced form.
Leave gaps in your notes when moving from one idea or topic to the next. This
makes it easier to see where an idea ends and another one starts.
If you do miss information, leave a gap in your notes, catch up with the
speaker, and fill in the missing information later by asking a friend, checking
your textbook or approaching the teacher.
Speed up your note-taking by using abbreviations and by writing in point form
rather than in full sentences. See overleaf for examples of the different types
of abbreviations students can use:
Choose a recording method for your note-taking that suits the style of the
lecture and meets your needs as a learner. See the section in this handout on
Note-Taking Methods.
b) Abbreviations
c) Note-taking Methods
The Outline Format
This note-taking method involves a system of indenting information to show
the relationship between main ideas, major supporting points and minor
supporting details. This requires listening for different levels of information and
works well for lectures that present ideas in a fairly organized, linear fashion.
Labels that represent the levels of information can be added during the lecture
or can be added afterwards as part of your editing process. See the example
below.
Example:
PROCRASTINATION
1. Fear of Failure
- Afraid they won’t be successful.
- They put off the work.
- Blame the lack of studying for doing poorly rather than
blaming themselves.
2. Perfectionism
- Have high standards.
- Want work to be perfect.
- May choose not to hand in work rather than risk getting
a low grade.
3. Avoidance of Control
- Do not want to be told what to do.
- Form of rebellion.
B. Symptoms of Procrastination
1. Sept 4, 07
2. Storage
What is storage? - retention of info. over time
- info. stored in three ways.
a) Episodic memories = memories of significant
What 3 ways can events
memories be ex. trip to Disneyland
stored? Give an b) Semantic memories = memories of people or
example of each. things that had an emotional impact.
ex. a teacher you really liked or
c) Procedural memories = memories of how to
perform certain tasks
ex. riding a bike
What is retrieval?
3. Retrieval
- info stored in memory is brought into conscious.
Describe the two - two types of retrieval:
types. a. Recall = retrieve info without any help
b. Recognition = info is retrieved by clues
Which is easier? - recog. is easier than recall.
Conclusion
Becoming a good note-taker is not easy and requires practice and persistence. If you have a
class that is particularly challenging, try creating a study group where you go over the material
together and/or share lecture notes. Another possibility is to tape record the lecture so you
can listen to it again and flush out your notes. Be warned that this takes a considerable amount
of time and that you should get the permission of the instructor before you tape record a
lecture.
For more information or help with lecture note-taking, please make an appointment
with the Learning Specialist at the North Vancouver campus by calling 604.984.1744.