Most of us start taking notes in school at some point. However, once we’re done with high school, college, or graduate school, we often continue to use the same outlining style we learned in school. In this chapter, I’ll share some research on the effectiveness of taking notes and which methods are best.

Taking notes makes a difference

Adult students took notes after listening to paragraphs of inform-ation. Students had a 34% chance of recall for items they captured in their notes. For items not captured, the chance of recall was less than 5%.

Another study compared students who took notes and studied them for a lecture with students who only listened to the lecture. Researchers tested subjects immediately after the lecture and/or one week later. Taking and reviewing notes had the highest retention and recall scores in both conditions. Those who only listened without taking notes—unsurprisingly—had the lowest scores.

A similar study looked at three groups: (1) those who took notes and studied them, (2) those who took notes but did not look at them, and (3) those who borrowed notes from others. Subjects who took notes and reviewed them had significantly higher scores on recall. Those who took notes but did not review them scored only slightly higher than those in the control group, which did not take any notes.

IMAGE

Researchers at City College of New York surveyed 200 students on their approaches to note-taking.

When students use highlighting or subtopics to organize their notes, their grade point average (GPA) tends to increase. This is because they become more engaged and involved in their courses after taking notes.

Look At My Notes