Learning. Life.

The Study Skills Series: 3. Serious Study Notes

Posted on 11 April 2008

Previous posts in this series:

• 1. Know thyself
• 2. Use it or lose it

Why write study notes:

1. Less to revise:

• Textbooks have a lot of information that helps you understand; once you understand, you only need reminders
• Your notes will have information that is now second nature to you
• Some of your notes will be irrelevant; at the start of the course you won’t have been able to tell what is important and what isn’t, so you probably wrote it all down (you should have, anyway).
• Some of your notes, handouts and the textbook won’t be examined – if you’re sure, leave them out.

2. You can make them to suit your own learning style.

3. You can include information from classes (notes, handouts and slides), the text book and your reading & research in the same place.

So study notes are really, really useful, and it’s much easier to study from one set of notes, in a style that suits you, than from information all over the place which doesn’t suit you. So …

How to make study notes:

1. Make them suit your preferred learning style.

2. Show main points clearly then be able to see more detailed notes. This lets you find information quickly and test yourself by hiding the detail. Here’s a simple way to lay out notes:

However … just before the test, I recommend revising your complete notes and the textbook again, to add back in any context or additional information you’ve been skipping over.

I’ll try to write another post over the weekend with some hints about what to do in the test room, for the Project Management students who have their test on Monday.