Are you tired of spending too much time reading your school notes? Are you struggling to create your notes quickly and effectively, but still getting poor grades on your test? Follow this method for how to take notes from textbook very fast .
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Summarize
The key is to write down the most important ideas of the information being given to you. Summarizing the information you are receiving makes for a simpler, more organized approach than scribbling down everything in paragraphs.
When you write notes through summary, your notes will be much shorter, and you will understand the information even better because you are processing the information as you break it down, instead of trying to copy the information word for word. Here are a few summarizing tips to keep in mind:
- Break your notes down into a logical list of key ideas.
- Use bulleted and numbered lists to expand on them.
- Use keywords and phrases instead of full sentences.
Use Symbols and Abbreviations
You already know how symbols and abbreviations work. It’s just a matter of adding them to your workflow to speed things up. Use symbols such as; @ for at, * for important, $ for money, != for not equal to, # for numbers, wt for weight, info for information, and so on. Sometimes you might not be aware of universal abbreviations for certain words.
Another trick to save time while writing notes or typing them is dropping vowels from words. Your eyes will still read the words just fine. Of course, you have to be selective about which vowels to drop while ensuring the readability of the text.
For example:
- lawn mower = lwn mwr (readable)
- automobile = atmbl (unreadable), autombl (readable)
Keep a Notebook Handy
Using a pen and paper might not seem like the fastest way to take notes. Smart devices and apps are great, but what happens when your laptop or phone battery dies? Having a notepad ready to go at all times saves you from fumbling around for a blank surface to write on.
Using a Notebook also saves you from the distractions of the digital world, your smart devices are constantly ringing and buzzing with notifications. Using your notebook could turn out to be a more productive note-taking method.
WRITE IN CURSIVE
That’s right, I said cursive. Do you know why cursive was invented? Because it’s faster than printing. Every time you lift your pen = time wasted. When writing in cursive, your pen stays on the paper for longer period of times. That means you can write faster. Plus, you can create an awesome signature for yourself 🙂
Granted, many students can’t write in cursive or it takes them forever. However, you can print off practice sheets on the internet and improve both your cursive writing and speed. Start mixing your notes between printing and cursive.
LIMIT OTHER DISTRACTIONS
For the love of God, put your phone, tablet, or laptop away. They will capture your attention with every buzz or ping and you will miss something important your teacher said.
If you’re in a classroom, try to sit closer to the instructor. If you’re far away, you may have problems hearing. Plus, students in front of you (and their bad habits) become a distraction for you.
The Cornell Method (Cornell Notes)
The Cornell method of note-taking was devised in the 1940s by a professor at Cornell University and is still promoted by the institution today.
The idea behind the Cornell method is pretty simple: The system is designed to give note-takers the ability to condense the main points of a lecture and still have room on the page to ask questions, draw conclusions, and summarize information.
As far as note-taking techniques go, this method is still one of the most effective. It divides a blank page into three separate sections:
- A Cue Column, which takes up about two inches of the left hand side of the page.
- A Note-Taking Column, which takes up all page space to the right of the Cue Column.
- A Summary section at the bottom for an after-class summary of the notes on the page.
You can see a full PDF of the method right here.
It’s worth pointing out that a more effective note-taking method doesn’t guarantee success. One study found that while the method does help students take better, higher-quality notes, it had no notable impact on student achievement.
Why use it?
If you don’t already have a note-taking system in place, Cornell Notes is an accessible option that can help you absorb and organize your information more quickly.
This method was designed to give students the ability to summarize key ideas in their own words and to draw conclusions based on that content.
This helps students condense and interpret their notes in a way that makes more sense — something that they don’t need to do when transcribing every word a professor says into a word processor.
Mind Mapping & Boxing Methods
If you’re a visual learner, using mind maps and boxing may be a way to help you take great notes. These methods involve connecting ideas using visual cues like lines and boxes.
Using a mind map, note-takers can divide a main topic into different branches of the main idea and then draw arrows and lines connecting those concepts. As a study technique, this is extremely effective. Studies have found that using mind mapping during study increases factual knowledge retention by 10-15%.
In a similar way, the boxing method encourages users to draw boxes around main topics or main points and to house all subtopics within the main box. It’s similar to the mind mapping idea, but the boxes and the grouping (rather than lines and arrows) represent connections.
Why use it?
In the past, mind maps and boxing methods have been at a distinct disadvantage to outlining and the Cornell approach. The reason is simple: Allocation of space!
An outliner can simply continue making new outlines and new topics in a logical format. She can do so across multiple pages, if necessary. In a similar way, the Cornell system allocates the space before the note taking session even begins. Note takers using Cornell know how much space they’ll have before they start another page, and they know exactly how to format that space.
Mind maps and boxing have problems because they restrict the space that a user has available. When creating mind maps using a pen and paper, note-takers are at a disadvantage because it’s difficult to move a mind map or to add space to a box once the box has already been drawn. Note-takers would have to stop, erase content, and redraw it in order to arrange everything appropriately.
Thanks to digital technology, all of that changes. If you’re taking digital notes on an iPad or similar tablet, you can rearrange your notes however you’d like. Moving notes, enlarging boxes, and reformatting content is easier than ever.
This makes mind mapping and boxing even more viable replacements for classic or traditional methods, so it’s worth giving them a try.
Shorthand Writing Systems
While it might sound antiquated and out of touch, shorthand writing systems are still a viable method of note-taking when you need to capture key information quickly.
Shorthand allows you to abbreviate your note taking by using symbols to briefly summarize words, concepts, and ideas. These systems and methodologies have been used over the years to allow writers to keep up during interviews, transcriptions, and other speech-to-text encounters.
The most common shorthand system in use today is the Gregg shorthand system. If you’re new to the concept, learning an entirely new system for note-taking might seem like a high bar. It is; we won’t dispute that.
But if you’re trying to figure out how to take notes fast, a shorthand system can allow you to take handwritten notes at well over 200 words per minute.
Why use it?
In all honesty, we’d only recommend using this if you’re serious about note taking and transcription. Mastering an entirely new writing system is akin to learning to read music or attempting to master an entirely new hobby.
But, if you’re serious about taking notes as fast as possible — or if you feel like you’ll need to write notes on pen and paper and you don’t want to miss anything, this may be a viable approach.
Thankfully, many modern technologies are more efficient and have been for decades. Audio recorders can help you capture a lecture without the need to master a shorthand writing system. Apps like Notability even have the ability to link your notes directly to your audio file so that you know at exactly what point in the lecture you decide to write something down.
Learning shorthand would still be ideal for the individual who wants a fully-analog experience. It’s easy to see it as a use case for a reporter who might be in a part of the world without access to regular power and who wants to capture every word of every interview for accuracy. Otherwise, the use cases feel a bit extreme.
Conclusion
Are you tired of missing out on important information while you take notes? You could be in a lecture or a meeting, and no matter how hard you try, you can’t seem to grasp every sentence.
The average lecturer speaks approximately at a rate of 120 to 180 words per minute. This rate is too fast for most note-takers, who, on average, can type at just 33 words per minute.
Trying to write down each and every word is almost impossible as you might find it hard to keep up. Here, you will find ways to take faster notes.