Talking about stationery makes me think about note-taking. I have mentioned a bit on mind-mapping and study skills but never really on note-taking.
I always wonder how people take notes, not just any notes but effective notes to study and score. When I entered secondary school, I did rather badly as there was a sudden jump in subjects. All of a sudden, I had to handle twice the workload, and I found everything very difficult to remember.
All the textbooks, guide books and assessment books did not help. My mum then asked me to take notes, as she said by writing down, I could register better.
So I did what she said but it still did not help. Then I realised I was not taking notes, I was copying down the entire textbook. This was how lengthy my "notes" were initially.
After that I was told to write everything in point form which was what I did. But my notes were still long because even though they were in point form, they still consisted of long sentences.
During upper secondary, I was lucky as in we had teachers who actually gave us study notes and I just studied from there. The notes were comprehensive, yet not too long and easy to understand. And my memory power really increased.
Through the years I experimented with various kinds of note-taking, from the normal lecture / tutorial notes to my own notes to concept mapping to mind mapping. My grades still did not improve.
Until my best friend shared her notes with me. Her notes were colourful. Every point was colour coded. She even doodled and drew cartoons on her notes to make them more "eye catching".
And that was when I realise with these kind of notes, all I needed was to read them once and I could remember! Because while recalling, I remembered the colour and the cartoons and somehow the words and facts came to me!
I always wondered why. After all the years I failed, why did I particularly remember her notes? Then in one of my university courses, I learnt about the different kinds of people towards learning. Some are more visual - they need to see before they could get it. Some are more auditory - they could just sit in the lecture and listen and they could get it.
The characteristics showed that I am definitely more of a visual person. No wonder I can remember better if the notes are more visually pleasing.
Since then, I tried to make my own colour notes. I did that in my final year and I really did remember better and scored better.
At least I have discovered my strength. This examination, unfortunately I was tied up with several things at the same time, so even though I told myself to make notes, I did not manage to do so. Maybe that is why I may not do well.
I only hope I can pass enough to go to the next semester and take the maximum load again. From now on I must make a point to make notes and mind maps before I study for any examinations!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
I always wonder how people take notes, not just any notes but effective notes to study and score. When I entered secondary school, I did rather badly as there was a sudden jump in subjects. All of a sudden, I had to handle twice the workload, and I found everything very difficult to remember.
All the textbooks, guide books and assessment books did not help. My mum then asked me to take notes, as she said by writing down, I could register better.
So I did what she said but it still did not help. Then I realised I was not taking notes, I was copying down the entire textbook. This was how lengthy my "notes" were initially.
After that I was told to write everything in point form which was what I did. But my notes were still long because even though they were in point form, they still consisted of long sentences.
During upper secondary, I was lucky as in we had teachers who actually gave us study notes and I just studied from there. The notes were comprehensive, yet not too long and easy to understand. And my memory power really increased.
Through the years I experimented with various kinds of note-taking, from the normal lecture / tutorial notes to my own notes to concept mapping to mind mapping. My grades still did not improve.
Until my best friend shared her notes with me. Her notes were colourful. Every point was colour coded. She even doodled and drew cartoons on her notes to make them more "eye catching".
And that was when I realise with these kind of notes, all I needed was to read them once and I could remember! Because while recalling, I remembered the colour and the cartoons and somehow the words and facts came to me!
I always wondered why. After all the years I failed, why did I particularly remember her notes? Then in one of my university courses, I learnt about the different kinds of people towards learning. Some are more visual - they need to see before they could get it. Some are more auditory - they could just sit in the lecture and listen and they could get it.
The characteristics showed that I am definitely more of a visual person. No wonder I can remember better if the notes are more visually pleasing.
Since then, I tried to make my own colour notes. I did that in my final year and I really did remember better and scored better.
At least I have discovered my strength. This examination, unfortunately I was tied up with several things at the same time, so even though I told myself to make notes, I did not manage to do so. Maybe that is why I may not do well.
I only hope I can pass enough to go to the next semester and take the maximum load again. From now on I must make a point to make notes and mind maps before I study for any examinations!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
0 comments:
Post a Comment