How to take notes in your Master’s lectures that will actually help

Taking notes in Masters lectures is one of the most important factors that could help you in your exam preparations. Although most students take notes, many of them are unaware of the right way to take notes. This article will help students in understanding how to take notes in the correct manner so that these notes can actually help.

 

 

Prepare in Advance

If you go into each lecture with an adequate amount of preparation, your note-taking process can be streamlined. You should buy a notebook that allows you to remove and add pages as per your convenience. In addition, you should carry highlighters so that you are able to mark the important elements of your notes. Finally, the best way to prepare in advance is to go through the reading material that has been assigned to you. This will help you in building a better understanding of the lectures and ensure that you take more relevant notes.

 

Create a Structure

The structure of lecture notes is extremely important. A lot of students miss out on taking relevant notes due to their laid-back approach towards note-taking. The best way is to adopt a structured method. While taking notes, students should look to answer relevant questions. One approach is to mention the relevant approach on one side of the notebook while writing the key pointers on the right-hand side. Further, within those pointers, students could look to highlight the important facts by using markers.

 

Review and Edit the Notes

If you want your notes to help you before exams or during essay writing, you need to review them after your lecture. You could even edit out the irrelevant portions of the notes. This way, you will have a concise outline of the key pointers pertaining to each topic. If you feel that certain topics are more important than the others, you could underline them to ensure they stand out. This will help you while you are preparing for your exams. Finally, notes also need to be updated. If there is a change in any facts or any new data sets become available, it is a good practice to go back and update your notes.

 

Thus, to summarise, effective note-taking comprises preparation, structuring, and reviewing. These three practices will go a long way in ensuring that you take notes in a manner that proves useful to you.