king Notes in the Classroom - Abbreviating

Note taking is one of the most common and most useful methods that an individual might use to study for a particular exam, interview, or other similar purpose. However, it is important for an individual to make sure that his or her notes are as complete and accurate as possible. Unfortunately, it is usually not possible for an individual to write down everything a professor says word for word and it is likely that an individual will miss important information if the individual cannot take each note quickly. Since most lectures only last approximately an hour or two at most and most professors cover a large amount of material in that time, it is essential for an individual to be able to take notes quickly in order to get the most out of each lecture. This means that in order for an individual to take notes effectively, there are certain techniques that an individual should use to take notes more quickly.

An individual that is attempting to take notes quickly should abbreviate wherever possible. For example, the individual should use abbreviations such as "min." for minimum, "max." for maximum, "p" for page, "e.g." to mean for example, and a variety of other similar abbreviations. The individual may even want to use abbreviations that are commonly used in professional shorthand such as "w/" that means with or "w/o" that means without. This will allow the individual to save a lot of time that he or she would normally have spent on actually writing out each word. The individual should also abbreviate any long words that he or she needs to write by using an abbreviation that the individual will remember. This is because, in almost every case, it is not important for the individual to make sure that someone else will understand his notes, but rather that the individual will understand them. For example, an individual may abbreviate the name of a continent such as Australia as "Aust." and the individual will probably remember that "Aust." stands for Australia based on the context. On the other hand, if the individual simply abbreviated Australia as "A," there are a variety of different things that "A" could be an abbreviation for and the individual may not be able to remember the term for which "A" is supposed to be an abbreviation.