Taking Notes in the Classroom - Handling Long Notes

It is extremely important for an individual to make sure that his or her notes are as complete and accurate as possible if that individual wants to use those notes to study for an exam, interview, or other similar purpose. In order for an individual to make sure that his or her notes are as complete and accurate as possible, it may sometimes be necessary for an individual to fill multiple pages with notes from a single lecture. In fact, in certain lectures, it may be more common for an individual to fill three or four pages with notes than it is for an individual to fill a single page. This can sometimes be a problem, however, as an individual may find that his or her notes are almost as overwhelming as reading the entire textbook when he or she goes to study for an exam. As a result, it is essential for an individual to find ways of handling extensive notes that span multiple pages.

This means that the individual should make sure that his or her notes are organized in the most effective way possible. If it appears that certain notes are out of order or in the middle of a section of notes about an unrelated topic, the individual should rewrite those notes so that each note is organized by topic in a logical order. This will make it easier for the individual to find information in a long series of notes when he or she begins studying the material. The individual should also try to simplify and summarize his notes as much as possible. If the individual took three or four pages of notes in a single lecture, the individual should write a quick two or three sentence summary for each page of notes that he or she took. This will allow the individual to quickly read over the summary and get an idea of what information is covered in those particular notes. The individual may also want to write a summary paragraph that condenses all of the information covered in the notes for one lecture into a single summary and include this paragraph at the beginning or end of the notes for that particular section. This will allow the individual to quickly review the information that was covered in a previous class at the beginning of the next class or while studying for an exam.