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Lesson 9: How to Take Classroom Notes
YESTERDAY'S ASSIGNMENT
Did you lecture to the wall about the lesson on lecturing to the wall? If not, please give this a try. I am trying to help you. If I did not think this would help you, I would not ask you to do it. It's no fun for most people. But if it works for you, you will gain an enormous competitive advantage over other students who have never heard of this technique, and who would not try it out even if they did hear about it.
This is the other half of The Overnight Student. The author learned how to take good notes. Then he lectured to the wall to remember them. Before we begin, let me tell you what your teachers never admit, even though they all know the truth: listening to lectures is not a good substitute for reading when you are learning complex material. When I say "lecture," I mean a speech. I'm not talking about a teacher at a blackboard who works out a math problem. I mean blah, blah, blah. Most people read at 250 words per minute. Most people talk at under 125 words per minute. Only professional stenographers can take notes this fast. You can read the same amount of words twice or more in the time that it takes to listen to the same number of words. Also, the words on a page stay there. The words in your ears don't. You can review a book. If you own it, you allowed to mark it up: notes in the margins, underlines, highlighting. You can stop and think about what you have just read. (Yes, this is allowed. In fact, I am encouraging this.) You can't write fast enough to transcribe a lecture. The lecture isn't laid out as carefully as a book. A lecture has not been screened by a committee for errors. If you slow down to think about the truth of any part of a lecture, you won't be able to write down the next part. There is only one significant advantage in a lecture. You can raise your hand and ask a question (if you get called on). But most lecturers don't like listeners to do this more than three times per lecture, if that many. If you keep asking questions, the other listeners will resent it. So, this advantage is minimal. You can easily misunderstand and write down the wrong thing. You can miss the main point. All in all, lectures are not good for delivering complex information. They are all right for introducing a new idea or two. They are all right for reviewing what students read the night before. But did all of the students read the assignment the night before? Of course not. Then there is this dirty little secret: nobody sits and listens to lectures, taking notes, except in high school and college. After that, nobody asks you to take notes. Rarely are you asked to sit through a lecture, except at church. Not many people take notes at church. You may be required to view a video or read a chapter or fill in an outline, but only in rare circumstances, such as a $500 weekend seminar, does anyone expect you to take notes. This is because we live 550 years after Gutenberg invented the printing press. Teachers lectured prior to Gutenberg because books had to be copied by hand. Students could not afford them. This has not been true for 550 years. One of the greatest advantages of taking college courses by mail and locally administered exams is that you don't become dependent on note-taking in class. But, while you were in high school, you were supposed to learn how to take notes. If you attend college on-campus, you had better be a good note-taker on the day you arrive. It's still a good tactic to lecture to the wall. That's the one place where lectures are effective in education. You give the lecture. But the wall doesn't take notes. Then why do colleges still require lectures? Tradition. Why do high schools require them? To prepare students for college. Also, to fill up time. Isn't there a better way? Of course. It's also a lot cheaper. But very few colleges admit that undergraduate education can be as effective and a lot cheaper without lectures. They get paid for providing what self- disciplined students really don't need. Only three colleges have eliminated lectures 100%. They are all very low-cost schools. All are accredited. But you have never heard of any of them. By the way, in graduate school, lectures are quite
rare. Senior professors teach graduate students. They
assume that their students are self-disciplined and can
learn on their own. Lectures are for students who cannot
be trusted intellectually. NOTES FOR YOU, NOTES FOR ME Students take notes in their own way. Some students can somehow sense the outline the lecturer is using. Others can't. You don't need to do a detailed outline when you write. Your teacher probably didn't use an extensive outline. Why try to impose one? I am a professional lecturer. I have been giving speeches since the age of 14 -- a long time. I use one sheet of paper for a one-hour lecture. I fold it into a 5«-inch by 8-inch sheet, with four panels. I fill the panels with notes, usually one idea per phrase. I use this paper just to keep from skipping anything. I write a one-hour speech in about one hour or less. I don't use a detailed outline. I use brief phrases. Now let's talk about you. Sometimes you're not sure when a lecturer moves to a new idea, which would mean a new paragraph. Don't worry about it. Just keep writing. Your hand will get tired. Buy a pen that you think is
comfortable. Write with it. If it's still comfortable a
week later, buy another one just like it. You might lose
one. PENS I can write more clearly with a fountain pen. (Blank stare.) A fountain pen has a metal tip and a rubber bladder that you fill with ink. Ink. You know: dark liquid in a bottle. (Blank stare.) OK, so maybe most brands of fountain pens went out of production back in 1968. So what? I like mine. I buy cheap ones: about $20. You can pay as much as (this, even I find astounding) $5,000. (Some people have their priorities messed up.) Here's why I like a fountain pen. Its point offers resistance as I write. I have much better control over the shape of my letters. A ball point pen rolls too much. I lose control of my penmanship. It looks sloppy. A fiber- tipped pen can't maintain the width of the ink over time. Its tip keeps getting fatter and softer. Then I have to buy a new one. Ink in a bottle lasts a long time. I buy my pens on-line from Swisher Pens.
If you can't read your own handwriting, this will mess
up your pre-test reviewing. So, do whatever you can to
write more clearly yet not slow down your
transcription. REVIEW YOUR NOTES, SOON In a student guide on note-taking, Utah State University reports that 95% of what you heard but failed to write down gets forgotten. That's why you had better take very good notes. Even when you do, the study says, two-thirds of what you wrote down is forgotten. The report is posted here:
That's why note-reviewing before the day is over is crucial. You can organize your notes while you still recall more clearly what the teacher said. You can add clarifying notes in the margin. Then, if there is enough time, lecture to the wall. I recommend last-period study hall for reviewing daily
class notes. If you find something that you don't
understand, maybe you can ask the teacher before the day
ends. Or write down your question on a 3x5 note card and
hand it in the next day. NOTEBOOKS (ONE MORE TIME) I recommend using a 3-hole, spiral-bound notebook that law students use: really wide margins on the left. This way, you can add new material in the margin, either after class or during the lecture period (questions & answers). The standard notebook's left margin is too narrow. Don't use a separate notebook at school for each class. You will be tempted to keep these notebooks with you. What if you lose one? You're a dead duck. Carry the same notebook to all of your classes. At the end of each school day, tear out all of your pages of notes. Take them home. Carry them in a separate cheap notebook that will keep the rain off the pages. At home, insert each page into a 3-ring binder, one
binder for each class, or a large binder with plastic
dividers/tabs for each class. Don't let these notes out of
your home office. COMPARE NOTES WITH THE TEXTBOOK As you know, I'm a fanatic about the necessity of reading tomorrow's textbook assignment the night before you go to class. The lecture will make more sense to you if you have read your assignment. But, more important, you may spot some correlations between the textbook's material and the lecture material. If the lecture repeats what is in the textbook, you can be sure this is high-priority material. Review it carefully before any exam. If you hear in the lecture anything that you read the
night before in the textbook, write ST in the margin of
your notes. (ST = "See textbook.") This will alert you at
home when you are reviewing your notes for the day to open
the textbook and see if you can find the same material.
You want to make sure your teacher's version is the
textbook's version. If it isn't, then either you took
faulty notes or else your teacher has a unique view, which
he may use on a test. Get this discrepancy clarified
before the next exam, either in a Q&A session or by means
of a 3x5 card. Your teacher will be amazed that you paid
sufficient attention to note the discrepancy. Or else he
will think you are a poor note-taker. So, always ask a
question. Don't say, "You don't agree with the textbook."
Maybe he does. He just doesn't agree with your sloppy
notes. IT GETS VERY COMPLICATED There is a summary of how to take notes on the Web site of Duke University. It is a Web page for athletes. These note-taking rules are fairly standard. I reproduce some of them here. I don't want you to memorize all this stuff. I do want you to get an idea of the inefficiency of note-taking compared to speed reading, re- reading, highlighting, reviewing, and lecturing to the wall. I strongly suggest that you select a college or university that doesn't emphasize lectures. That way, you can avoid the following. . . .
BEFORE THE LECTURE BEGINS: Will you do all this? Of course not. Should you? Of course. If you want an A, you must do this. If you want a B, it would be wise to do this. If you are getting a D, you had better do all this. Do this, too. . . .
Copy everything that is on the blackboard or transparencies, especially the outline. |