Dangerous Logic

I Was Scribbling Notes So Fast My Paper Actually Burst Into Flames

If American Digest isn't already on your daily reading list, it should be. I think Gerard has the solution to a problem that's been bothering me ever since I started working on my Master's - how to take notes in a way that they're useful when you go back to them later. My instructors' lecture styles have been all over the place so far, and I mesh with some better than others (e.g., one guy lectures to PowerPoint slides that he emails to the class beforehand; I print those up six-to-a-page before class and annotate them during his lecture, which works pretty well). My instructor this semester is an almost stream-of-consciousness guy who goes off on more tangents than a Trig final. I've had him for a class before, and when I studyed for his exams then, I often found myself wondering just how I was going to pull any useful information out of my notes.

I think today's American Digest has the answer - a framework for note-taking called the Cornell Note Taking System:

The feature I think will really make it work for me is the Cue column, and the reason I think that is because one of the things you can do with it is to play Jeopardy! by jotting down potential questions based on the information on the Notetaking column. The System recommends doing this as soon after class as possible, but I think that doing it at the same time I'm taking the actual notes would be a good way to capture my instructor's train of thought, which often runs on several tracks in perpendicular directions simultaneously.

Posted by Chris at January 21, 2005 04:19 PM

Category: General Weirdness