Are Your Notes Like Swiss Cheese?

1. Are Your Notes Like Swiss Cheese? Too Many Holes! A Workshop On Note Taking Skills Brought to you by the UC Clermont Learning Center

2. What We Will Cover • How To Get The Most Out Of A Lecture. • Listening Skills. • The Day Dreaming Trap. • Tips For Taking Notes While You Listen. • Successful Note Taking Methods. • Reviewing Your Notes After Class. • Organizing Your Notebook.

3. How To Get the Most Out of Lecture • Be Prepared • Arrive early • Actively participate • Review notes soon after class • Rethink all examples covered in class

4. Ways to Be Prepared For Class • Always read or thoroughly skim the text before class. • You will be better able to follow the lecture's main points . • If your professor has Notes/Power Points on Blackboard… • Print them out before class. • If possible, triple space typed notes and print PowerPoints with a notes section. • Use these to take notes on in class by filling in the missing information. • Review posted notes before class.

5. Do You Have Any of These Bad Listening Habits? Quiz When listening in class… • Do you call the Subject Dull? • Do you criticize the Speaker? • Do you tolerate distractions? • Do you only listen for facts? • Do you try to write down everything the speaker says? • Do you not write down anything at all and assume you will remember it?

6. Listening is a Learned Skill! People do not instinctively listen well, whether in conversations or in class! It is something that we all have to LEARN!

7. Tips On Effective Listening • Before class: • review your notes from the previous class to refresh and mentally prepare for what the instructor will be talking about. • Determine why what the instructor is saying is important to you. • Remember: the responsibility for interest and understanding lies with YOU, NOT with the instructor. • Learning is up to the learner.

8. More Tips On Effective Listening • If you can't hear, arrange things so you can. • Look for the instructor’s pattern of organization. • Look for the main idea or ideas of the presentation. • Facts are important only as they support the speaker's points.

9. Beware of Day Dreaming! • A speaker before an audience slows down to about 100 words per minute. • We think an average of 400 to 500 words per minute as we listen. • What do you do with your extra thoughts? • Use Your Thought Power Wisely: • Anticipate the next point. • Identify supporting material. • Recap What They Have Said So Far.

10. Take Notes While You Listen • Condense-do not use a sentence when a phrase will do! • Leave open space to go back and fill in extra information from the text. • Focus on the things the speaker focuses on: • Things written on the board. • Things repeated. • Facts or ideas emphasized by tone of voice or body language. • Anything included in a wrap up summary or reviewed from the previous lecture.

11. Making Outline Notes *Outline notes place the general information to the left. -Details or examples that explain the general topic are indented. -As the details get more specific, they are further indented. *When more general topic are introduced, return to the left. You do not have to use letters, or roman numerals for an outline. They are your notes: Use whatever symbols work for you!

12. Using The Cornell Note Format Recall Column: Class Notes Column Record the lecture as fully as possible in whatever note taking method you are comfortable with. **If you miss a statement, write down key words, skip a few spaces, and get the information later from a fellow student, the text, or the professor. • Immediately, reduce information to short summaries and statements here. • Use them for reciting, reviewing and reflecting.

13. Reviewing Notes Before Next Class • Read through your notes and highlight important information. • Turn the important information in your notes into note cards so that they can be carried with you and reviewed frequently. • Re-write your notes more clearly or in a different format. • This is the perfect opportunity to add in information from the text not covered in class.

14. Webbing As A Note Review Subtopics Explained Instructor’s Main Topic Details Given on Subtopics Secondary Details

15. Organizing Your Notebooks: Part 1 • Use a 3-Ring Binder instead of a Spiral Bound Notebook. • Start the quarter off with one binder and add another later on if necessary. • Use dividers to separate your various subjects.

16. Organizing Your Notebooks: Part 2 • Take notes on loose-leaf lined paper. • You can move your notes around in your binder if more notes are given on a specific subject later on. • You can insert handouts (from class or Blackboard), quizzes or tests right along with that chapters notes. • This makes studying for Mid-term and Final Exams much simpler! • Use post-its or sticky tabs as tabs to separate each chapter.

17. Need More Help With Your Note Taking Skills Visit Us on Campus at: The Learning Center Room 100 Educational Services Building www.ucclermont.edu/tlc