4 Powerful Ways To Remember Everything Your Teacher Says

A free article on Education and Reference

As a student, I can almost bet at one time or another you have had the experience of taking reams of notes, only to find you've left something important out or simply cannot find it in your notes later. Fortunately for you, there are some helpful tips in this article to help you remember everything your teacher says. Read on for some techniques sure to increase your ability to absorb and recall massive amounts of information, easily and effortlessly.

Use Coloured Pens and Pencils

Have a look at some notes you've taken in class. What is the common element in all of your notes? It's the color of your notes - no doubt all taken down in pencil or standard black / blue pen. When you've got this page after page , it's hard to scan your notes for the important points. Rather than always taking you notes like this, try colored pencils and different colored inks. If you make a habit of this, you'll find your notes MUCH easier to refer back to.

Remember that most people find it easier to recall facts when they have a visual cue to work from. This is why using different colors in your notes is so effective. When you try this technique, you'll find that some colors work better for you than others. You might find that some colors work better for specific types of notes.

Personally, I like to do most of my notes in black, with corrections in red when I need to do them. The red contrasts with the black ink, making these corrections easy to spot.

Underline and ACCENTUATE Key Points

While taking notes, it is extremely helpful to underline or otherwise emphasize certain items in your notes. Boxes, circles, whatever works best for you. However, you shouldn't overdo it; otherwise it will be difficult to tell what you meant to accentuate and what you didn't!

Include Charts, Figures and Graphs

Many things are easier to draw than to write. Timelines, relationships and other concepts are difficult to write, but relatively easy to communicate with diagrams. Use colors, shading and different text colors to make these easy to follow.

Use Oversized Paper

Large paper just seems to work better for some reason. You can buy paper in boxes of 5,000 continuous sheets for a little under $30. This can last for years and works great for large diagrams since they can be folded easily. Consider purchasing some of this paper for your note taking.

With these large sheets, you can get all the important topics from a day's lectures onto a single sheet, or divide each page by subject or concept. Depending on the course, one or the other may work better for you.

To illustrate, I had a course last year where I was able to place my notes from lectures on a single page (one page per lecture). I could fit notes for 17 textbook chapters and thirty articles on these pages as well. This let me study from 12 pages instead of a thousand - quite a time saver, and MUCH more effective.

Making these pages of notes can even be fun. When you do it this way, you can almost feel it sticking in your mind. Try it for yourself - you'll see your confidence in classes increase rapidly. If you follow the ideas laid out in this article, you'll find your academic success on the rise.

Information about the Author: About the author: Dr Marc R. Dussault can show you how to easily improve your school grades using proven "speed study" methods that anyone can master! Visit the "Get Better Grades" web site for more great tips on speed learning. Education and Reference Articles: http://www.article-buzz.com

Print This Article Add To Favorites Email to Friends Get Re-print Code

Click the XML Icon for 'Education and Reference' Articles RSS feed