Taking good notes can be a crucial part of a student’s high school experience. Good notes can make or break how well a student does on a test so it is a good idea to have well written ones. Here are some tips and tricks to help improve the quality of note taking.

 

Pay attention during class

While listening to the teacher in class is a boring task, it is a must in order to take good notes. Often times teachers stress the main points or most important facts during class. Writing down this information will help increase your quality of notes.

Do not write everything down

Often times students are assigned a multiple page reading with an overwhelming amount of information. It can be difficult to pick out the most important information. Instead of writing everything in your notebook, only write bolded or colored words and important dates or places. This will make studying for an exam much easier because there will not be an overload of information to read over.

Try different methods

Finding the right method of note taking will make the task simpler and quicker. Try using roman numerals or bulleted lists for a neater approach or outlines to separate information into specific categories.

Organize

Organizing the information in specific categories will make it a lot easier to find information quickly. Use headlines for each topic and subheadings for smaller topics or ideas.

Highlight

Highlighting important terms will make it easier to find main ideas faster. Just don’t go too crazy, or else it will be stressful to read.

Colorcoat

Using different colors will make taking notes more interesting and pretty. Assign a color for a specific topic and write everything down in that color. Make a key on the side as a reminder for what each color represents.

Make them fun

Making notes interesting to look at will make studying a more enjoyable task. Use bubbles, arrows, banners, colors and different fonts to add detail to your notes.