Taking effective notes
Learn useful note taking tips. Note taking helps with understanding and retention of lecture and reading material.
At university it is essential that you learn how to take good lecture notes. Note taking helps with understanding and retention of lecture and reading material. You will also need to refer to your notes at a later date as you study for tests and exams.
You can enhance the quality of your notes by following some note-taking tips such as using white space, developing your own system and format for recording information, and reworking your notes. It is also important to become an effective listener. Download our guides for more note-taking advice.
You can take notes using pen and paper, but you can also use technology. One research study revealed that taking notes with pen and paper leads to better learning. However, a group of students came up with a way to take notes collaboratively by using a shared Google Doc.
How to take notes in class: the five best methods—College info geek
In the video below, Thomas Frank explains five different systems.
No one way of note taking will suit everyone. Talk to your friends to find out what they do, or make a one-to-one appointment with a Learning Adviser to discuss different ways to take notes in and out of class.
Taking notes digitally
There are a number of digital platforms you can use to take notes. Later we talk about using OneNote which is available for free for VUW students. Notion and Obsidian are also free for students; while Roam Research has a subscription fee (though you can apply to get a discount as a student). The platforms are listed below along with useful introductory videos.
The major advantage of the three note-taking apps below over taking notes using Google Docs or Word is that you can create tags for the different ideas and topics. You can then search for these tags making your notes more discoverable.
OneNote
Benefits of OneNote include having all of your notes in one place, the ability to record lectures and pair those recordings with your notes. Additionally, OneNote can automatically sync to the cloud allowing you access to your notes from multiple platforms.
How to use
- Open OneNote. If you don’t already have the programme installed on your computer, you can download it for free by following the instructions on the Victoria University of Wellington Student Software page.
- Create a new notebook: Click the Show Notebooks button then the +Notebook button. This will allow you to name your notebook and save it by clicking Create a Notebook.
- Creating a new section: Sections can be helpful to differentiate between subjects e.g. FINA301 and ECON201. To create a new section, go to the bottom of the section list and click +Section, this will bring you to a box allowing you to name your section and confirm it by pressing enter.
- Save your Notebook: OneNote does not have a save button as it automatically saves everything for you.
- Record a lecture: Click where on the page you wish to insert the recording then proceed to the insert tab at the top of the page and click Audio. OneNote begins recording immediately.
Top tips
- Sharing your Notebook: This can be helpful for group projects or taking collective notes on a subject. In the upper right-hand corner of the window, click Share. Select which notebook you wish to share, than under Email invitation type in the email of the recipient. You can select if the recipient can edit or view. Click share to send the link.
- For more OneNote tips, check out this video and see how OneNote is used in a variety of ways: