MANY a times we wonder how some students are always excellent in studies while the rest of us just struggle. We can’t get how they manage to perform so well in school, what is it that they do which we don’t? Envy and jealousy takes over.

There is no magic potion behind this, just simple techniques that these kids follow and get good grades. The simple techniques include listening to lectures and note-taking. Yes, as simple as that.

Earlier, rote memorisation was considered as an essential skill for passing one’s exams with flying colours, but these days students have to understand the concepts and for that they have to follow the lecture while taking notes, which is one of the most essential and critical study skill. Within few years, students manage to acquire the ability of note-taking, regardless of who the teacher is and what the subject is about.

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Writing down

FOR effective note-taking, you must maintain a written record of the lectures. Studies show that the process of forgetting things starts almost immediately and according to the famous author of Reading and study skills, John Langan, “Within two weeks you will forget 80 per cent or more of what you have heard. In four weeks, you will be fortunate if five per cent remains!”

Very true. Just try to experiment on yourself or if you have already experienced this then imagine yourself at the time of the examination or tests if you have little or no understanding of the topic. So by repeating the topic and noting down the key points of the lecture, you are likely to remember it for a longer time.

Apart from that, you must have been told by your mum or dad to ‘always sit in the front rows of the class and don’t be a back bencher, because the teachers will consider you dull’. This is true but not always, as there may be many backbenchers who still get good grades.

What matters is how efficiently can you listen to your teacher while sitting at the far end of the class. You may have a better view of the class from behind but it also means your attention could be diverted if a classmate is doing something else. Secondly, it is likely that you will not listen properly to the teacher, and also, cannot clearly see the points s/he is highlighting on the board while giving the lecture.

As a result, you try to peek into someone else’s notebook to have an idea or maybe you stay quiet to take notes from those sitting in the front rows. In this case, it is always better to sit in the front rows and avoid such problems/distractions.

Be observant and concentrate

YOU have heard so much about the importance of note-taking and you may be more active now, but let me add that it is also important to observe the lecturer and the lecture. During the class, sometimes the lecture goes away from the topic and there are many points that may be irrelevant, just don’t write each and every word. Try to note down only what is to the point you have to be observant. Try to grasp what your teacher wants to convey to you.

And if you are listening to an hour-long lecture, “Don’t be tempted to take a lot of notes for the first 10 minutes and nothing at all for the rest of the session. Make sure you pace yourself and gather information consistently throughout the lecture. A good lecturer will provide quality information throughout their lecture slot, so don’t lose concentration,” says Dr Catherine Armstrong who is a lecturer at the University of Loughborough, England.

Advance reading

MANY kids know that there are countless benefits of reading the topic prior to it being discussed in the class, but those who don’t think it is important must ‘note’ that the key to effective note-taking and being successful in life is reading in advance. Children who go through their topics before it is discussed in the class have little or no problem in following the lecture. Also, these kids have new ideas and questions that may have sprung from their reading; their notes will be much more organised and clear, and of course, their understanding of the subject will be far better than that of other students.

Review your notes

FINALLY, at home, go through your notes and see what’s clear and what’s not while the material is still fresh in your mind. Don’t leave it for the next day, according to Johnie H. Scott, Assistant Professor at California State University, Northridge.

“The best time to start studying your notes is within a day after taking them. Because of the mind’s tendency to forget material rapidly, a few minutes aside for study soon after class will give you more learning for less time and effort than almost any other technique you can practice,” Johnie H. Scott stresses.

Remember being a smart kid in the class is very easy; you have to follow only a few techniques in order to be a successful student. You thought there is a magic potion that brilliant kids use? Well, I have just shared the recipe. Try it out! n

Taking ‘worth reading’ notes

By Imaduddin Sawal

HAS it ever happened to you that the teacher just gave you a brilliant lecture on a topic in history or science and you got it all then, but just as you arrived home and started to do the homework, you couldn’t understand a bit?

Well, if that is true then don’t fear that you have a poor memory, the problem might just be in your style of studying. Much research has been carried out regarding how much information we retain after listening to a lecture. Most of them conclude that we remember 70 per cent of information better if we note down the lecture being presented. But the problem is how to take down “good” notes?

So, the first advice is to learn the shorthand writing system. This method is mainly for people who have that beautiful writing that takes much time to write even a single word. The shorthand system mainly trains you to develop a secondary system of writing by shortening words such as b/c (because), w/ (with) etc. that enable you to write at a much higher speed. There are many online tutorials regarding it, along with some books available in the market.

Secondly, whether you wrote the notes in shorthand or not, it will surely be a better idea to write the notes in a neater way elsewhere as soon as you have the time, so that you will be able to read and understand the notes even after a long period of time.

Also, keep them simple and clear. The basic idea of notes is to keep them short, but have enough triggers in the keywords to jumpstart your memory when you look at them again. Some tips regarding that are to stick to keywords and very short sentences. Similarly, write out your notes in your own words. An exception to this is that if the teacher is saying a word-by-word definition or theory, you should try to copy that down as it is. The golden rule is “Write down only what matters”.

One more piece of advice is finding the note-taking method that suits “you”. There are several ways of taking notes, such as in bullets, paragraph, using colour pencils, mind-mapping, etc. Try experimenting with all of them and finally determine your perfect style of note-taking.

Lastly, stop using outdated techniques, such as “highlighting”, yes that’s right. This is an excerpt from a Time magazine report:

“Highlighting and underlining led the authors’ list of ineffective learning strategies. Although they are common practices, studies show they offer no benefit beyond simply reading the text. Some research even indicates that highlighting can get in the way of learning; because it draws attention to individual facts, it may hamper the process of making connections and drawing inferences. Nearly as bad is the practice of rereading, a common exercise that is much less effective than some of the better techniques you can use. Lastly, summarising, or writing down the main points contained in a text, can be helpful for those who are skilled at it, but again, there are far better ways to spend your study time.

“Highlighting, underlining, rereading and summarising were all rated by the authors as being of “low utility.”

Alas, I hope that these tips help you in noting down the lecture in class and then making useful notes from it that make you ace your examinations. And who knows, you might end up inventing your own unique note-taking method. Good Luck!