Always Take Notes – The Reason it Works

By Camille Rodriquez

The brain learns best when we can engage our senses in the process of learning. One simple tool, often forgotten or done poorly, can help to work through volumes of information with ease and do so with a sensory focus in mind. The practice of note-taking is one that students often wait too late to develop. Students should be very adept at this by the time they reach high school, and keeping up their skills in this area will make a big difference when they get to college.

The reason that note-taking works so effectively when done right is because three of our five senses can be incorporated quickly. Whether listening to a lecture or hearing the voice in our heads when we read, our ears are listening to the data that is being shared; our eyes are watching the words form as we write or as we type; and our hands are touching the pen or keyboard. (In addition, hearing is reinforced with the sound of the keyboard typing in the background or the scratching of the pen on paper.)

For printed material on which you are taking notes, flip though the material and notice anything that stands out in the text such as italicized or bold words, charts, graphs, boxed “highlights,” etc. Those are things that the author wants you to pay attention to, and are worth jotting down in summary notes. Note any key words and their definitions before reading the material, too. This will help explain the meaning of key information before reading the text, and will make the content more understandable when reading the material.