{"id":25341,"date":"2015-09-21T09:25:51","date_gmt":"2015-09-21T13:25:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/?p=25341"},"modified":"2015-09-21T09:25:51","modified_gmt":"2015-09-21T13:25:51","slug":"hand-cramps-be-gone-the-art-of-note-taking-in-lectures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/2015\/09\/21\/hand-cramps-be-gone-the-art-of-note-taking-in-lectures\/","title":{"rendered":"Hand Cramps Be Gone: The Art of Note-taking in Lectures"},"content":{"rendered":"Maybe you got hand cramps from packing sand to make sandcastles all over a beach, maybe you got them from tapping lines of candy in the intense game that is Candy Crush, maybe you got them from whipping fluffy cream in your kitchen for delicious whoopie pies, or maybe, if you\u2019re like me, you got them from clinging on to a kite string too tightly for fear of it whisking away; regardless, you\u2019re so<\/em> not ready for hand cramps caused by scribbling an infinite number of notes during lectures, especially when you feel like all you did was accomplish the art of transcribing.\r\n\r\n
\"My<\/a>
\u2014 My brother, taking over the kite-flying like a pro after I got a hand cramp.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\nThe solution to a happy hand and concise notes? Improve your note-taking skills. Here are a few strategies I\u2019ve implemented that have helped me with this so far:\r\n
    \r\n\t
  1. Work with headers<\/strong><\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\nSometimes, the lecture slides might include headers on which the prof plans to elaborate\u2014write them down. If headers aren\u2019t provided, listen to what the prof is explaining and later jot down the concept or topic that best encompasses the material. This will not only help organize your notes, but it\u2019ll also serve as a ready-made list of concepts for exam review.\r\n\r\n
    \"Notes<\/a>
    \u2014 Notes I took for Astronomy class. I use \u2018\u2606 |\u2019 to make headers easier to locate.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n
      \r\n\t
    1. Jot down brief bullet points about what the prof is saying<\/strong><\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\nInstead of transcribing the lecture slide featuring a twenty-line passage from Metamorphoses<\/em> word-for-word, take brief notes about what the prof is saying<\/em>. Lecture slides can\u2019t substitute for a prof\u2019s one- to three-hour talk, after all. Plus, some profs post their slides on Blackboard afterwards, so you can copy them later.\r\n
        \r\n\t
      1. Use abbreviations and symbols<\/strong><\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\nEver write as fast as if you were on a time-sensitive mission in a James Bond movie, and by the time you\u2019ve written your sixth word, the teacher has switched topics, leaving you with a string of half-finished sentences? It might help to substitute words for symbols and abbreviate long words to ensure you get all your notes down. For example, try writing \u2018&\u2019 for \u2018and\u2019 or \u2018political party\u2019 as \u2018pol pty.\u2019\r\n
          \r\n\t
        1. Extra: Edit\/revise your notes<\/strong><\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\nIf following the step above, you might very well end up with a page filled with something that looks partly Quenya. To avoid this, edit your notes after the lecture, when you still remember what those symbols and abbreviations stood for. Also, revise your notes until you\u2019re sure they\u2019re cohesive enough that you\u2019ll understand them a few months from now, when you need them for exams.\r\n\r\n
          \"A<\/a>
          \u2014 A chart of Tolkien\u2019s created language, Quenya, which vaguely resembles my high-school law notes . . .
          Source: http:\/\/i.fonts2u.com\/te\/mp1_tengwar-quenya-1_1.png<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\nIf you\u2019re interested in honing your note-taking skills even more, consider signing up for an upcoming workshop hosted by the Academic Success Centre called \u201cReading & Note-Taking.\u201d           Details on the ASC workshop are listed here under October 1<\/a>.\r\n\r\nRemember, it\u2019s okay to find note-taking difficult and frustrating at first. However, like all other skills, it can be improved. Save yourself from that hand cramp and churn out those beautiful, envy-inducing notes!\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nDo you have any other tips on how to make great lecture notes? Let me know in the comments below or through @lifeatuoft on Twitter!<\/em>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
          \n
          \nMaybe you got hand cramps from packing sand to make sandcastles all over a beach, maybe you got them from tapping lines of candy in the intense game that is Candy Crush, maybe you got them from whipping fluffy cream…\n<\/div>
          Continue reading “Hand Cramps Be Gone: The Art of Note-taking in Lectures”<\/span>…<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>
          Continue reading “Hand Cramps Be Gone: The Art of Note-taking in Lectures”<\/span>…<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"author":268,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6669],"tags":[341,176,112,307,172,25507,1343,54],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25341"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/268"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25341"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25341\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25349,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25341\/revisions\/25349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}