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Ask HN: How to Take Good Notes?

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Re: Ask HN: How to Take Good Notes?

#101

Post by 2OEH8eoCRo0 »

mbrameld wrote: post #93

For me it's a two-step process to write the actual notes. The first step happens in class, copying down what I think I need to understand the concept being taught. Take cues from the teacher, if they write something on the board or it appears in their slides it's probably worth noting. The second step is much more important. As soon as possible after class, hopefully armed with a better understanding of all the mater…

This was my professor's routine. His final notes almost look fit to publish as-is. They were immaculate. He would go over his notes from the day and rewrite them immaculately.

Re: Ask HN: How to Take Good Notes?

#102

Post by machinelearning »

If you're taking notes for a class/lecture. Only take notes for things that are:

1. Interesting/non-intuitive

2. Things you'd like to dive into further later

Don't waste time taking notes on things that you already know, are common sense or otherwise derivable. Do not try to be comprehensive or worry about being too organized, it is just excess overhead.

Handwrite whenever possible. The investment in doing so increases the chances of following up afterwards.

If you're taking notes for a meeting, be sure to catalog the chain of thought and relevant ideas. Let people follow up with links etc.

Lastly, its worth assessing why you even want to take good notes? If you're unable to pay attention during lecture but still want to get the information, perhaps its worth doing a lesson pre-view and re-view instead of focusing too much on the actual lecture.

Re: Ask HN: How to Take Good Notes?

#103

Post by Shank »

If you're in a class/lecture, you should write the notes, not type them. It slows you down such that you're really forced to interact with the content. If you touch type, you're really not ingesting the content as much as if you were writing because it goes in and out so fast.

Anything that you do after taking notes by hand is additive. I personally suggest trying to convert your notes into summaries of key topics or step by step problem solving strategies. It just depends on the type of content. If your exams are more "trivia" based, you need to know intimate details and verbatim notes are better and synthesis will help less. If your exams are more problem solving, then you'll need synthesis more.

If you take anything away from this thread though: hand write notes. I bought an iPad Pro just because of the Pencil and it saved me in my last year of uni because I could hand write without dealing with paper.

Re: Ask HN: How to Take Good Notes?

#104

Post by dfxm12 »

I typed my notes in an app like OneNote (this is a while back, I forget what it was called). During class, I'd type an outline of the concepts and examples given in class and then organize them away later, with each tab being a different concept. If I didn't understand something after the fact, it was still in my outline, and that was a sign that I'd have to ask the professor about this concept later.

A lot of people will tell you to write everything down and do something with it later. If you didn't understand the concept in the first place, that's not going to help! This is why writing notes didn't work for me. I write slow, but I type fast.

Being present, physically and mentally, in class was important for me! I couldn't do this if I was falling behind writing things down. Also, ask questions if you don't get a concept. Writing what the professor says verbatim is not a note. Writing the underlying concept down is.

Re: Ask HN: How to Take Good Notes?

#105

Post by evo_9 »

From the Havard PDF on NoteTaking [1]:

● Avoid transcribing notes (writing every word the instructor says) in favor of writing condensed notes in your own words.

● Review your notes on the same day you created them and then on a regular basis, rather of cramming your review into one long study session prior to an exam.

● Test yourself on the content of your notes either by using flashcards or using methodology from Cornell Notes[2]. Testing yourself informs you what you do not yet know from your notes and successful recall of tested information improves your ability to recall that information later (you will be less likely to forget it).

● Carefully consider whether to take notes on pen and paper or with a laptop. There are costs and benefits to either option. For example, note-taking on a laptop may allow you to include more content in your notes, but at the risk of being distracted by unrelated tasks.

● Avoid the misperception that you know lecture content better than you actually do, which can lead to poor study habits. While course topics may appear easy to understand in class, they may be rather difficult as you are reviewing them several weeks later while preparing for the exam. Be aware that you will forget some of what you have learned and adopt better study habits to address the gaps in your knowledge.

[1]https://hwpi.harvard.edu/hilt/files/hilt/files/notetaking_0....

[2]http://coe.jmu.edu/learningtoolbox/cornellnotes.html

Re: Ask HN: How to Take Good Notes?

#106

Post by eric234223 »

mbrameld wrote: post #93

For me it's a two-step process to write the actual notes. The first step happens in class, copying down what I think I need to understand the concept being taught. Take cues from the teacher, if they write something on the board or it appears in their slides it's probably worth noting. The second step is much more important. As soon as possible after class, hopefully armed with a better understanding of all the mater…

What is CFI ?

Re: Ask HN: How to Take Good Notes?

#107

Post by ospfer »

eric234223 wrote: post #106
mbrameld wrote: post #93

For me it's a two-step process to write the actual notes. The first step happens in class, copying down what I think I need to understand the concept being taught. Take cues from the teacher, if they write something on the board or it appears in their slides it's probably worth noting. The second step is much more important. As soon as possible after class, hopefully armed with a better understanding of all the mater…

What is CFI ?

Certified Flight Instructor

Re: Ask HN: How to Take Good Notes?

#108

Post by peterburkimsher »

tasubotadas wrote: post #13
peterburkimsher wrote: post #5

When I was in university, my girlfriend at the time taught me about good note-taking. - Use paper. I could annotate printed PPT slides with the whitespace on 4 per page, but sometimes would overflow onto the (blank) reverse side. Computers have too many distracting notifications. - Write down questions with a big (?) and ask them at an appropriate time. Professors care much more about that than you think, in Western…

What's the story with the PhD in Kora? :)

Short version: The university promised a scholarship; the professor didn't pay it. Taking it up with the international student office led to the professor saying "You said bad things about me to people in the administration, get out of my lab" -> no professor, no lab, no university, no student visa, no country.
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