How To: Take Perfect Notes

As promised last week, I told you that my next blog post would be something helpful for you IB'ers!

So, here it is!


1.  Read your material before taking notes. 
Make sure you read your WHOLE material before taking notes, as you might not understand the overall content of the material. Then, read the material(each section) and annotate the important words/sentences. By doing that, you will not only understand the material better, but you will know what to write down or highlight. This brings us to the next step!

2. Know your method of taking notes
Now, taking notes is different from person to person. Here, I am going to state the ways I take notes, which can be helpful to any of you!

 -  Cornell note taking:   Beneficial when you have to understand a subject, for example in biology
if you have to write about i.e. Prokaryotes.
You will have to state an overall title (Prokaryotes) - and summarize what a prokaryote is and its functions.  The last part of this is a summary of your notes in your own words.

Source: internet/google

 - Highlighted notes: This is good, if you need to quickly highlight important terms as done here, or even a particular sentence. This method of note-taking is a good thing to do, especially when you are given a text in printed copies and you want to highlight certain events, dates, words, etc.

Get funky with all kinds of different highlighters!

- Online note-taking: When you're out of paper, or simply want to save your paper for later important uses, what is better than online note taking?!

Personally, I use OneNote for my school, just as many other people do and it is fantastic! 

You might not be able to see the content of the picture (but you get the idea)

This method of note-taking is brilliant because:

• It saves time
• Notes are constantly saved (no worries)
• You won't lose your notes! (in the air storage)
• Nice, if you bring your computer everyday
• It is simply amazing!

Evernote is also one of my favorite, but since I do not use it school-wise, I therefore cannot elaborate on this one. You have to try it out yourself!

And to the last method...

- Mindmapping: I use this one a lot for history. It helps establish an overall picture of the topic you're encountering. The super good thing about this, is that it can be done in the beginning of your topic (before you learn anything) and it can be done after/during your study of your topic. (So like a comparison between your knowledge prior and after)

This I used using an app called "SimpleMind Free" - I think it is only available in the App Store for Macs. (There is one similar for the Windows Store called " NovaMind")
The app is not free, however you can screenshot your result and then use it for whatever you want!

3.  But is it readable? And understandable?

There is nothing like waking up in the morning on your Physics Exam, taking out your notes written over the past 2 years, stand there and think: 

"What kind of state was I in, when I wrote this?  These aren't even COMPLETE sentences! ARGH"

 - Let me tell you this. Just by showing my ways of taking notes, doesn't mean your notes are going to be perfect! Remember, when writing, write mainly in your own words! In that sense, it will be easier for to understand the topic better. 

"But what if there is a sentence, that perfectly describes how I would've said it?". 

Yeah, yeah you can include that. As long as you understand it! Otherwise, there is no point in writing it?

Most importantly, write it, so you can read it. I have heard bad excuses for failing an exam, such as: "Hey, I failed because I couldn't read my own freaking notes!"

4.  Check upon your notes

Once in a while, look back at your notes and check if they still make sense! If they don't, you probably haven't written down enough or any important information. Also, try to add more and more each time, so that you're sure that you aren't missing any important points. 

5. You're simply good to go!

There you have it! Have fun note-taking!