How to make your study successful:Take great notes
When it comes to studying its not just how many notes you make, but also the quality. Are they legible? Did you write down everything or just the necessary points?
Knowing how to take good notes can increase you marks by up to 34 percentile points. Being able to tell if a piece of information is the same or different from what you already know can increase your marks by 45 percentile points.
The following are some really useful tips on making GREAT notes by Andrew Fuller, an Australian clinical psychologist.
- Don’t write only what the teacher tells you to – take your own notes
- Make your notes understandable for you – change words, draw pictures if necessary
- Vary size so some words stand out
- Use different coloured paper for different subjects
- Record yourself saying information you need to know and play it back on repeat
- Create large posters of information you need know remember and put them in obvious places (behind the toilet door, near your bed, opposite where you eat etc.)
- Use acronyms to remember key words which jog your memory
It takes human being an average 24 repetitions of almost anything to get 80% competence, and then practice to keep it. So now go out there and start taking some awesome notes!
– Julie (S4S Coaching)