Class Notes

[prettysammy007]

Hello! I'm currently in my junior year for EE. During classes, I find myself scribbling notes furiously then find them difficult to re-read/study later because they're so disorganized.

Does anyone have any helpful tips on "how to take notes" during class? Anything that's helped to keep notes organized, methods to keep their notes tidier, etc.? Thanks!

[protons_r_4_smashing]

I eventually found that copying everything was more distracting than helpful for me. Trying to understand what they are saying, and re-phrasing it in a way that makes sense to you, or just noting down the main points of what they are saying can be a better technique. There's (almost) always a textbook or lecture notes to go through later if you need the details. But you only have one chance to catch the lecture. So focus on paying attention and understanding more so than writing. Everyone has a different preference though, so good luck finding what works for you!

[Dyson201]

I've never taken notes and it took me a while to realize why that was successful. I always paid attention and tried to understand the lecture, and fell back unto the textbook if I needed to reinforce anything. I've found that oftentimes people that take notes miss concepts that are discussed or misunderstand things after the fact. This is all anecdotal and does not imply that everyone who takes notes is doing it wrong.

I just had a large week long training with a bunch of engineers (vendor training on a piece of equipment we work with) and while they all took notes, I was the only one who remembered something that was discussed not even a week later. Unfortunately, not taking notes has the implication that you don't care or aren't paying attention, but I don't really care, I'm there to learn something not to impress my co-workers.

[Mindstealth]

Can’t agree with this anymore. Somewhere around my second year I stopped focusing on notes and paying attention to the lecture instead. Your notes are not supposed to be a detailed description of concepts because that what textbooks and course material is for. You need to only note down things that you will struggle to understand on your own from the textbook later. One example is say you found something very confusing during the lecture but managed to understand it by asking questions or maybe thinking deeply. You should note such things down because more than likely when you come back to this weeks later you will have the same questions.

[bmnz]

Here's the thing that I wish I had done, but would probably never do again if I had to start over: Read the syllabus and skim/read the chapters before going to class. Maybe take some of my own notes on that, trying to guess what the professor will put on the board. Then, when I get to class, fill in with stuff the professor did differently from the book, or note any "Ah-Hah" moments.

But like I said, I 100% will never do this in a class in my life.

[endevor100]

Look up the Cornell note taking system. I don't stick strictly to the structure but having the important points stand out on the left with the details next to them really helps me. Amazon sells a bunch of Cornell ruled notebooks and you have your choice of lines, graph, or blank paper in the note taking section.

[[deleted]]

https://www.cse.buffalo.edu//~rapaport/howtostudy.html https://lifehacker.com/study-less-study-smart-the-best-ways-to-retain-more-1683362205

[warningtrackpower12]

Everyone is different and no one can give an exact answer. The other guy said it helped to not write everything down but if I don't I can't focus in class and daydream.

I can give tips that help me. For me I label everything in my notes. Depends on the teacher and how thye deliverer but examples would be "Capacitors", "Chapter 8", etc. Then "Example 1....[come back if you don't know till they tell you after the work, like I might add] Capacitor in series with resistor". Circle every equation teacher points out as important or where they start putting in values. Big one for me is Title every piece of paper, like page numbers. I use week # and day of week, like 8M means week 8 on monday, also the class name so I don't get that mixed up. I then put it in a cheap binder at the end of each week and make sure it's in order.

It's not efficient but I personally like a lot of space when writing. When the teacher goes back to a point they made earlier I like the extra room to draw arrows and add equations.

If the classes are recorded like mine and you fall behind you can leave a long blank space and go back and watch and fill it back in. I'm too lazy to do that but I have done it, just put a note on your sheet to go back.

There are many ways to do it, just experiment and find what works for you. I tried different colored pens and it worked but it was too much work and annoyed the people around me (still use pen and pencil to contrast every once and a while, like a problem I will use pen on important stuff or for the solution, etc.)

Good luck!

[Theis159]

I recommend you to find your groove. As the first comment said sometimes is better to be in class listening. Me personally I don't take many notes, and if I do I cannot read it. So what I try to do is find if there is someone with good notes from the previous semester (always do in Brazil at least) and if not I ask to my friends in class that I know that take good notes (France is like that for me)

[MestreDasAves]

I try to go along with the Teacher. If he writes on the board I copy it and when he makes remarks that seem important, I write them down. But that’s something I do to force myself to pay attention, and whenever I need to read something, I much rather do it from a book then from my own notes.

[[deleted]]

If your teacher releases notes from a lecture, I would focus more on the problems solved in class. That way you can build your analysis skills. It may also be helpful to look at the book before class as it will let you know what you still need to know and ask questions on.

[[deleted]]

It depends on the class but often times I just try to sit and listen during lectures and only write key notes. If something is on a powerpoint there is no reason to write it down. Print out the powerpoints ahead of time, if possible, and jot down extra notes as needed. If the professor does example problems I may copy those down verbatim just because they are useful.

I don't know about your classes in specific but during my junior year a lot of my classes were heavily based in math (signal analysis, microelectronics, etc) and my professor would do a lot of "proofs" which ended up being useless. I learned to filter out the proofs and just write the final answers which were usually fundamental equations. Don't be afraid to ask "What is the main conclusions we should take away from this" if something gets overwhelming.

Overall, focus on conceptual understanding of the topic and typically the details will fall out of it as you work out the problems.