Remedy for a note taking
Doing this 2nd bachelor career, I recall I used to be a student who only focused on what I was interested in, rather than making straight As. So still am I. But that doesn't hold now because I need good average grades to go to the graduate schools I want to go to. Among several reasons why I haven't got the grades I hoped to earn so far, one reason must be that I don't remember what I learned in class. Crucial, indeed.
One solution is to improve the way I take notes. So far in the school I've used three ways to take notes such as paper note, text editor on laptop(Emacs), printed material that instructors deliver. As a conclusion, they haven't worked. Especially the first one, most common way to take notes, is messy, not sorted properly that I don't want to look back to it later on. And just then when I was wondering how I improve it, I found a book.
The author extracted seven rules that are most commonly used in the notes she collected from several hundreds students at Japanese top-ranked school, University of Tokyo, which are:
1. Indent neatly
2. Copy if no need to write by hand
3. leave a blank space boldly
4. create index
5. separate contents properly
6. have one's own format
7. write with care
(official site of the book liseted here if you don't mind reading Japanese.)
Additionally, the book also has some evokative comments/usages from teachers, outstanding researchers and great writers such as:
- students with good grades take notes fast enough that they can also write down what teachers only tell orally / their notes { are easy to read / have stories } (Lecturers at cram schools)
- Use the margin in textbooks (Dr. Tomonaga, S., Nobel prize winner in Physics)
- "To 'write' something is to 'write into brain'. Since human being memorizes by doing so, to pay attention to what you are writing at the moment is really important." (Dr. Ezaki, R., Nobel prize winner in Physics)
- Take advantage of all seven rules (Soseki Natsume, novelist)
My thoughts. The rules above might look too common to be new, and also some of them are ambiguous, but still they are eye opener to me since they make me realize I haven't had any practical rules for taking notes. So I'll try take advantage of them as they are without any doubt for the moment.
One big mistake I've done so far is to take notes on laptop. It seems to be working for some students who use tools with graphical features such as MS Word, Adobe illustrator and so forth. But since I have to start over from basics, I quit doing it. I need to define "Memo" and "Note" could be different. Memo is a record in order to communicate with others, or to memorize for one's own sake. On the other hand, note is a record for understanding by oneself. Computer is enough for taking memo normally, but may not be adequate for note. From my experiences during jobs, the images that have stimulated me more were the ones on paper, not in the display.
One solution is to improve the way I take notes. So far in the school I've used three ways to take notes such as paper note, text editor on laptop(Emacs), printed material that instructors deliver. As a conclusion, they haven't worked. Especially the first one, most common way to take notes, is messy, not sorted properly that I don't want to look back to it later on. And just then when I was wondering how I improve it, I found a book.
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The author extracted seven rules that are most commonly used in the notes she collected from several hundreds students at Japanese top-ranked school, University of Tokyo, which are:
1. Indent neatly
2. Copy if no need to write by hand
3. leave a blank space boldly
4. create index
5. separate contents properly
6. have one's own format
7. write with care
(official site of the book liseted here if you don't mind reading Japanese.)
Additionally, the book also has some evokative comments/usages from teachers, outstanding researchers and great writers such as:
- students with good grades take notes fast enough that they can also write down what teachers only tell orally / their notes { are easy to read / have stories } (Lecturers at cram schools)
- Use the margin in textbooks (Dr. Tomonaga, S., Nobel prize winner in Physics)
- "To 'write' something is to 'write into brain'. Since human being memorizes by doing so, to pay attention to what you are writing at the moment is really important." (Dr. Ezaki, R., Nobel prize winner in Physics)
- Take advantage of all seven rules (Soseki Natsume, novelist)
My thoughts. The rules above might look too common to be new, and also some of them are ambiguous, but still they are eye opener to me since they make me realize I haven't had any practical rules for taking notes. So I'll try take advantage of them as they are without any doubt for the moment.
One big mistake I've done so far is to take notes on laptop. It seems to be working for some students who use tools with graphical features such as MS Word, Adobe illustrator and so forth. But since I have to start over from basics, I quit doing it. I need to define "Memo" and "Note" could be different. Memo is a record in order to communicate with others, or to memorize for one's own sake. On the other hand, note is a record for understanding by oneself. Computer is enough for taking memo normally, but may not be adequate for note. From my experiences during jobs, the images that have stimulated me more were the ones on paper, not in the display.
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