TAKING DOWN NOTES

As students, we face many challenges in answering mathematics, but even so, we come up with coping mechanisms on how to make answering our mathematical problems easier, and one of the effective effects of this is taking notes on what we are studying. In this way, it will be easier for us to answer the mathematics problems we have and also help us focus and better understand the main concepts.

1. Prepare your needs - make sure to prepare your needs that you can use during your classes for taking down notes.

2. Take notes in your own words - Paraphrase what you hear so it makes sense to you—it helps you to understand and remember what you hear. Try to paraphrase everything except where information needs to be noted exactly.

3. Structure your notes with headings, subheadings and numbered lists - Use headings to indicate topic areas or to include bibliographic details of the sources of information. Use outline form and/or a numbering system and indenting to help you distinguish major from minor points and as a clear way of indicating the structure of lecture information.

4. Code your notes - use colour and symbols to mark structure and emphasis.

5. Use colour - to highlight major sections, main points and diagrams. You can also use different colours to classify and link concepts or information by topic. However, don’t focus too much on colour coding when you’re in the lecture. It requires time and concentration, so it’s more useful to do most of the highlighting and underlining when you’re revising your notes later.

6. Underline, circle, star, etc - to identify key information, examples, definitions, or other important materials. Devise your own marking code to indicate each type.

7. If you miss something - write key words, skip a few spaces, and get the information later. Leave a space on the page for your own notes and comments