Study Skills - Ozark Campus: Taking Notes

Updated and revised edition . As every student quickly learns, merely sitting through a class and paying attention is usually not sufficient to ensure good grades. The proper taking of good notes is essential. Note-Taking Made Easy tells why the student should take his or her own notes (rather than buying them or taping lectures), and tells exactly how to determine what is worth noting, whether during a lecture, classroom discussion, even from a book or during a meeting. The authors describe the two most successful methods of organizing notes--outlining and patterning--and provide shortcuts to really make note-taking easy, from shorthand devices to abbreviations. Special sections are devoted to taking notes from texts, fiction as well as nonfiction, and handling charts, graphs, and photos. A final chapter shows how to tie together notes from various sources. This STUDY SMART reference guide series, designed for students from junior high school through lifelong learning programs, teaches skills for research and note-taking, presents strategies for test-taking and studying, provides exercises to improve spelling, grammar, and vocabulary, and reveals secrets for putting these skills together in great essays.

This book is for college students who are serious about being successful in study, and teachers who want to know how best to help their students learn. Being a successful student is far more about being a smart user of effective strategies than about being 'smart.' Research has shown it is possible to predict how well a student will do simply on the basis of their use of study strategies. This workbook looks at the most important group of study strategies -- how to take notes (with advice on how to read a textbook and how to prepare for a lecture). You'll be shown how to:format your notes use headings and highlighting, how to write different types of text summaries and pictorial ones, including concept maps and mind maps (you'll find out the difference, and the pros and cons of each), ask the right questions, make the right connections, review your notes, evaluate text to work out which strategy is appropriate. There's advice on individual differences and learning styles, and on how to choose the strategies that are right for both you and the situation. Using effective notetaking strategies will help you remember what you read. It will help you understand more, and set you on the road to becoming an expert (or at least getting good grades!). Successful studying isn't about hours put in; it's about spending your time wisely. You want to study smarter, not harder. As always with the Mem powered books, this thorough (and fully referenced) workbook doesn't re-hash the same tired advice that's been peddled for so long. Rather, Effective Notetaking builds on the latest cognitive and educational research to help you study for success.