How can Students make Effective Study Notes?
Students are often advised to write notes in class that can help them score well in their academics. These notes are an essential part of studying, which help students acquire great skills to work upon during their exams. Notes can be easily written by students, even if they are not that good at writing because it involves an individual’s learning style of writing and unique way of presenting. Though there are many ways of note-taking in class, but students mostly prefer the kind that suits their style and way of writing. While making notes, you must make sure that understand what you write down in the class. These notes later help you to make connections between the topics that you’ve studied for your exams. Some of the characteristics of good study notes are-
- They are easy to understand and learn.
- They save your time and efforts.
- It contains all the important information about class lectures and books.
- It can be easily revised by the students during exam days.
- It also contains important extracts from different books and texts.
- It demonstrates the style and pattern of writing answers in your exams.
Before you begin writing with your notes in class, you must first know about the style of writing that suits your ability to learn. The four main learning styles are-
Note-taking method for Visual learners
Visual learners tend to grasp and understand things by simply seeing them. For making effective notes, they use props like shapes, colors, images, diagrams, maps and graphics for learning things visually. These types of learners are good at memorizing things, organizing information and remembering images and other visual content. The best way to learn things for visual learners is to use images, colors and shapes in their notes. If they properly organize their notes, with a good color scheme and interesting shapes, then they can easily learn the content mentioned in their notes. Another most effective way for visual learners is to adopt the strategy of a mind map. Here, they can make connections between the ideas learned and then organize it in a way that makes sense to them. Highlighters and colored pens can help these learners to learn things more quickly. They can even make use of color strips in their notes to practice memory recall.
Note-taking method for Auditory learners
When we talk about auditory learners, they usually grab the important piece of information by way of hearing. They prefer to study the information by listening to it. This makes them good at explaining the ideas and concepts verbally, solving issues by talking them out, and following verbal instructions for every task. Auditory learners can make the best study notes when they listen to something and then repeat it for learning. The best way, they can adopt here is to audio record their class lectures. You can later listen to this audio piece of your lecture during exam preparations. Another effective strategy that they can adopt while learning it to speak things aloud, narrating the important pieces of their chapter for exams. This way, you can self-explain the ideas learned to yourself for better understanding.
Note-taking method for Kinesthetic/ Tactile learners
Tactile learners are usually good at learning and understanding things while moving and doing. They tend to understand things by body language and gestures. This helps them to understand the bigger picture easily. The most effective strategy for tactile learners is to include some kind of movement or engagement in their learning activity. You can even write notes on flashcards if you are a tactile learner. Taking notes on laptop is also very effective for tactile learners, as typing is a great activity to keep themselves moving even while writing notes.
Note-taking method for Read/ Write learners
These types of learners fall under the traditional style of learning, where they read things to learn the information effectively. Read/ write learners prefer to write and then read the information for better understanding. They are usually good at organizing information, memorizing it, conveying it and then understanding it for better learning. As they fall in the category of traditional learning, they like to write detailed and complete thoughts in their writing. One of the most successful notes making strategy is to use the Sentence method. It employs- writing down the information in full sentences, using headings to organize each topic wisely, mentioning the important pointers to keep up with the information provided by the teachers.
It is important for students to understand the type of learning strategy before they begin writing their notes. This comes out to be the most effective strategy for learning and understanding. Apart from this, if you face any kind of difficulties with your assignments and academic projects, feel free to contact our online assignment writing services that offer professional guidance in every field.