Study Skills Report: Effective Note-Taking for Academic Success

This report delves into the critical role of study skills, specifically focusing on the importance of note-taking in academic settings. It highlights the significance of taking notes before, during, and after class, emphasizing how effective note-taking contributes to better understanding and retention of information. The report explores various note-taking methods, including the outline method, Cornell method, boxing method, charting method, and mapping method, providing detailed explanations of each technique and their respective advantages. It underscores how these methods aid in organizing information, improving focus, and enhancing overall academic performance. The report concludes by reiterating the essential role of note-taking as a cornerstone of student success and effective learning.

STUDY SKILLS

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
QUESTION 1..................................................................................................................................3
Importance of taking notes..........................................................................................................3
QUESTION 2..................................................................................................................................4
Methods for note taking...............................................................................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Study skills refers to an array through which organisation process can be tackle. This is
basically an approach applied for learning. Study skills also helps the students in acquiring good
marks and grades in the school. In this report the importance of taking notes and their
significance of different stages will be discussed (Gillies, 2017). It is also mentioned in the report
about the essential features of note taking.
QUESTION 1
Importance of taking notes
Taking notes is the process of recording the information and data, that is collected from the
different sources. Normally notes are collected from the oral discussion in the meeting and
lectures. Taking notes are very important for the students in the classroom, as it is not possible
all the time to remember everything what teachers are teaching. A written note can be beneficial
in the future also. There are many subpoints and important points which should be remember by
the students and notes helps them in keeping the evidence for future. Taking notes is also helpful
during the test, as students have to give tests according to the class discussion and it is difficult to
remember all the points for the long time.
Significance of the different stages:
Before class: before class basically refers to the reading the material before the class. It is very
important to read the material before and prepare accordingly. Students can also find the
question after reading the material several times. Students can also approach to the library for the
books and more reading materials. The textbooks provide the more knowledge and
understanding. Reading before the class helps students in preparing for the class. Previous notes
also help in increasing the curiosity for the topic and also students can answer the questions
during the classes (Siegel, 2020).
During the class: in this it is important for the students to attend the class on time and regularly.
Students must have sufficient pens and paper for making the notes. Before teacher starts the
class, the students should write down proper information about the date, day and topic etc. it is
important to listen to the teachers carefully. Students should write down enough possible points,
so that is becomes easy to understand in the future. It is important because it get a broader
prospective, i.e., from in the class and from outside the class.
3

After the class: it is important to review and revise the notes after the class. It helps in keeping
the lectures fresh in the mind. It is also helpful in clearing the confusion and questions which are
hard to understand. Highlighters can be used to mark the important points and topics, so that it
becomes easy to find the important part of the notes. Preparing notes after the class helps
students during the tests and assessments.
Therefore, taking notes are important for the students as it helps them in learning and
understanding new things about the topics.
QUESTION 2
Methods for note taking
Note taking method helps the students in their success. Note taking methods helps the
students before and after the classes. It also helps in concentrating and focusing during the
lecture. There are different methods of note taking. They are as follows:
Method 1: The outline method: the most popular note taking method for the students. In this
method the notes are organised in the form of structure (Artz, 2020). It helps in saving lot of time.
It represents different topics and subtopics through the bullet points. This helps in highlighting
the key points of the lecture. It gives a proper and clean structure to the notes.
Method 2: The Cornell Method: the Cornell method is the most unique method of the note
taking. Basically, it finds its applications in the different situations. The page layout makes this
method different from other method. The page layout of this method is like it is divided into four
parts. This method can be used for all types of the lectures. It is the fastest way to organize the
notes. It also helps the students in the efficient learning in less time.
Method 3: The boxing method: in this method of the note taking the notes which are related to
each other are grouped together in the box. It helps in saving the time in reading and reviewing.
The app called GoodNotes are much helpful, as the notes in the boxes can be reordered and
resized frequently. Digital note taking also helps in allowing the focus on the page through
zoom. This method is useful during the class that is divided into the different sections. It is most
appropriate for the students who uses the iPad for the notes.
Method 4: The Charting method: it is a method in which the information and the data is
collected in the form of facts and statistics. The information and the data are organized in the
form of tables and spreadsheets. In this method each and every column represents the category
4

that makes the rows comparable (Siegel, 2018). The information and the data are clearly
structured.
Method 5: The mapping method: this method works best when the content of lecture is very
intense. It organizes the notes by dividing them into branches, which helps in establishing the
relationship between the different topics. The topic of the notes is written on the top of the map.
Basically, it is used when the content or the information is very intense and heavy, and it should
be structured in easy form. It also allows the editing of the notes.
Therefore, note taking is the most important part in the life of the students. It lays a
positive impact for the success of the students. It helps in the learning and understanding the
information of the students.
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded that note taking is the most important part of the student’s life. It plays a
vital role in the success of the students. It helps them in understanding the notes in the easy and
clear way. The notes play an important role before, during and after. the emphasis was laid on
the methods of the note taking.
5

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Artz, B and et.al., 2020. Taking notes in the digital age: Evidence from classroom random
control trials. The Journal of Economic Education. 51(2). pp.103-115.
Gillies, A., 2017. Note-taking for consecutive interpreting: A short course. Taylor & Francis.
Siegel, J and et.al., 2020. Measuring the importance of information in student notes: An initial
venture. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 43, p.100811.
Siegel, J., 2018. Did you take “good” notes?: On methods for evaluating student notetaking
performance. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 35, pp.85-92.
6

7