Steps to Success – Step Three! 

Take a few notes

Don’t panic!

I know sometimes people panic when they hear the word “notes,” or they have the opposite reaction which might be worse – they just ignore the idea of taking notes.

You don’t have to be one of those people.

You have been reading with intent (remember last week’s exercise), so you are already part way there.

Remember that you are stopping every couple of paragraphs and asking yourself questions.  The answers to some of these questions can formulate your notes.

You don’t necessarily have a note every two paragraphs, but it is useful to know that the answers you are giving yourself can help form the basis of your notes.

You want to note the most relevant information.  This is why you should not try taking notes for every sentence or two.  Students take too many notes in this way.  I have seen students highlight an entire chapter or take notes on all but a few words! By the way, this is a useless activity.

Whenever possible, try to make connections to information you have learned previously or throughout the current text.

Tip:   Add your own thoughts when appropriate.  Getting yourself involved keeps the material interesting.  You want to build that WEB of knowledge.

Leave a little space to add information either from further reading, lectures, videos, or other sources.  Being able to “slip’ information into appropriate (logical) spaces can be very helpful.

Remember – one step at a time.  No stress. No panic.  Stress will reduce your learning ability by far.

Note-taking takes a little practice, but you will soon find these scratchings very helpful when you want to quickly review or gain a more complete understanding.

Here is your next step:

Go back to the texts you practised last week or find some new interesting material to read with intent and practise taking a few notes.

You can find short academic texts on Newsela, ReadWorks, Commonlit and other sites.

Let me know how you make out. 

Need a little help or motivation?  Send me a message and we will have a free information meeting.

Video:  Steps to Success – Step Three