Effective Note Taking

Everyone has their own unique learning style.  In lectures some people pick up things simply by listening, others needs graphics/videos to take information in and some people prefer to read information in bullet points.  It is essential to discover which learning style applies to you in order for you to make effective notes while studying.  Information about discovering your personal learning style is available from here.

Personally I am a visual learner.  I need images, colours and videos to make sense of information.  The following is just a few simple ideas I find useful to make my studying as effective as possible:

• Mind maps.  These visual aids are great for brain storming and pulling information out of my head.  They allow you to organise information into sizable chunks in a method which makes sense to me.  Mind maps can be as big or small as you want, contain colour and images.
• Coloured pens.  These are great for differentiating between information and important information.  A particular word written in green pen may act as a trigger to recall the rest of the information.  Colour coding my notes is also extremely helpful to me.
• YouTube.  If you are having difficulty understanding a particular topic, search for a video about it on YouTube which explains it better.  In the exam you may be able to recall what was said-just try avoid getting sucked into YouTube and looking up funny cat videos!!!
• Diagrams.  They say pictures are worth a thousand words.  For me this is most definitely true.  I can pick up complex subject matter from diagrams easier than reading through pages of text.

Which ever learning style applies to you, it is important to find a method of note taking which works best for you.  It will avoid wasting time when studying and ensure you remember the maximum amount of information during an exam.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is something I had never thought about before I started college.  In secondary school we are thought how to use direct quotes and ideas from texts in our work, but nobody ever mentioned anything about referencing where this quote came from. 

Essentially this was stealing.  By not mentioning what book we took the information from, you are taking credit for the authors ideas and passing it off as your own.  There are a few different methods of referencing out there.  From my experience the Harvard Referencing Style is the most popular and recognised.  An online tutorial about this can be found here.

A few quick things to remember when citing someone else's work:

• Paraphrasing.  By re-wording what the original author has said, you are using their idea but not stealing it and claiming it as your own.
• If you do decide to include a piece of information directly from another source, ensure you use quotation marks to show this is not your original work.  This is perfectly acceptable-as long as you reference where it came from!

Time Management

Like most college students, I found myself struggling to effectively manage my time.  Assignments were not being completed until the final minute, striking a work/college/leisure life balance seemed impossible.  Personally it felt like I was busy all of the time, yet I was always so far behind with college work.

How did I overcome this issue? The following is a few simple ideas which radically improved my time management skills:

• Create a personal timetable.  For example, I knew my college timetable and when I had to work at my part time job.  I could fill this information into my personal timetable, then I could see what time I had free to do study, assignments and fun activities.  You do not have to be extremely rigid within this timetable but the structure is extremely beneficial because it allocates time for everything and prevents wasting time while also creating a routine.
• Prioritise your tasks in order of importance.  Decide which assignments are most important and require the greatest amount of work and complete them before the lesser important ones.  This avoids procrastination and wasting valuable time.  It also ensures these assignments are not left until the last minute.
• With regard to assignments, read the brief and break it down into smaller manageable chunks.  I think this makes tasks seem much less daunting.  Also by completing the assignment one chunk at a time allows you to keep track of what has been completed and what is left to do.
• Ensure regular breaks are included in your routine.  These are vital to rest the brain and to avoid hitting the dreaded "study slump"!  Also I recommend one day of the week to be free from study or work related activities, which is time dedicated to yourself!