I’ve been a student almost my whole life.
Because of this, starting in primary school and moving from there to secondary school, sixth form and university, I’ve learned a lot about taking effective notes as a student.
Some of my work mentions this studying status and as a result, a question I get asked very often is ‘How do you take notes as a student’?
Unfortunately, it’s not a question that I like to hear, because I believe that it varies so much between person, subject and desired outcome.
This article is an endeavour to tackle this tricky question though, and I hope that come away from it with a point or two that can help you in your studying.
I didn’t start off taking suitable notes as a student. The marketing of all the shiny tools won out and I spent most of my time copying my notes into Notion pages rather than doing work to convert it to knowledge.
Therein lies my first and most important point about taking notes as a student…
I’m not here to tell you exactly what apps or study methods to use. That’s for you to experiment with and decide upon. There is a single guiding principle however that every student should keep in mind when considering note-taking for study…
The notes you’re taking are not a means to an end in themselves.
They have to be geared for the use that your studying intends. If you’re going to have to pass an exam in the subject then there’s no point in making detailed notes on principles. Better to write short prompts and simply use these prompts to recall the majority of the material. It’s simpler and more functional.
I study a science subject and this is most of how we’re examined during the degree, so this is how I take notes from my lectures. I know, it’s not glamorous, but it places focus on recalling the information, which is what’s important in my context.
On the other hand, if you’re studying an essay-based subject it might be better to write more detailed notes. It might be useful to create a knowledge base that you can refer to for better insight into the linked concepts in your subject.
The second point that I want to make is that taking notes whilst studying needn’t be as strenuous as those who constructed the course make it out to be. You have to decide what you want from the degree.
If you want to pass with top marks, then you’ll have to put more time into creating your notes, opting not to cut corners. But this comes at an opportunity cost…
If you’re prepared to optimise your note-taking and focus on the essential few things to get the outcome that you want from your studying, it saves up a lot of free time for you to do what you please.
My choice was to start sharing writing online, and one year later I’ve created a personal brand that demonstrates real-world skills just as much as any degree.
Your studying isn’t the be-all-and-end-all as I mentioned at the start of this piece. You’re going to have to use the skills later on, so it’s a good idea to supplement the degree with proof that you can put what you’re learning into action outside of a controlled education environment.
I imagine that some readers have already clicked off of this article in disgust at the fact that I wasn’t going to lay out my entire study strategy for them to procrastinate to. Those of you that remain I hope understand that it would be pointless for me to do this. Everyone’s studying slightly different things, aiming for slightly different outputs and you must adjust this accordingly.
I’ve given examples of prompts for recall-based subjects and a knowledge base such as a Zettelkasten for essay-based subjects.
These should start to turn the wheels in your mind for ideas as to how you can separate the wheat from the chaff in your study process. Keep things simple and focus on the outcome that you want to achieve, doing what you need to do to achieve it and nothing more. Then you can spend the time that you save through efficient studying to supplement your study with real-world demonstration of ability.
I hope this article has improved how you now look at taking notes for studying — thanks for reading!