How I Take Notes In University

Your note-taking style is probably different than your friends or classmates. There are a variety of factors contributing to how you take notes, from what subject the notes are for to what type of information you are dealing with. For example, students in the arts degree program may have notes of diagrams and labels, whereas science students may have definitions and concepts. I take courses in the arts program (communication) and business program (marketing) so if you are in either program, my note-taking style could be helpful for you. Thanks for visiting my blog!

Every professor has a different teaching style, which means how you take notes (or even if you take notes) varies. For example, in one of my third-level communication courses, I don't take notes because there are detailed powerpoint slides on the site I use called Moodle. However, for my brand management course, I take notes for a lecture before the lecture. If a professor is lecturing about a topic that you will not be graded on, it is up to you if you want to take notes! If a professor is lecturing on a topic that you might be graded on and will be useful for a project or presentation, definitely takes notes! Below is a photo I took that represents the different components of my notes.

As shown in the photo, the notes I take are separated by chapter. Each chapter is underlined in pink to help me visually distinguish that I have reached a new chapter when flipping through my notebook. Each major section of the chapter is underlined in green and with a black pen, so that I am aware that the information under it is part of the major topic. If there are sub-sections for a major section I put a short dash and underline it yellow. The information listed in my sub-sections start with an arrow bullet point, which makes it easier to identify the category. The photo below is a section of my notes that contains a large diagram.

The diagram shown was large and needed a lot of space on the page. When working with large diagrams, make sure to give yourself as much space as estimated to fit all relevant information. In this case, I gave myself half a page to draw out the diagram. When reviewing your notes for a midterm or exam, it helps to have a diagram spaced out to ensure you are reading everything and structuring correctly. The photo below is of a different section of my notes.

As shown in the photo, there are two different colours of written text, black and blue. I use a black coloured pen when I am writing information before a lecture. During lectures, my professor talks about definitions and additional information not on powerpoint slides. As a result, I always write more information on-top of my existing notes in blue. I typically have space to write definitions and useful information in my notes, however sometimes I have too much to write so I write on the edges of the page!

That concludes the post! I hope you gained some useful tips from my note-taking style. One thing I want to stress is that using different colours to signify a section, title, and so on can be very helpful. Thanks for reading!

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