Ok so I am just now starting in my nursing program in March and I am seriously thinking about changing the way I take notes and study. And I would really like to see how other people use their notes to study.
So right now I have either one 5 subject notebook for all classes or multiple 1 subject notebooks for each class. I take notes while in class and then sometimes rewrite them later as well as typing up a study guide to study from. This has worked for me in the past but those were just general classes. I know many other people like to have 3 ring binders with paper in it to take their notes but I have always wondered if I would like it.
So how does everyone else take their notes to study from, and how do you use them to study? I don't want to get into the program and study for my first test and realize then I needed help in the note taking department.
For me it has varied. For classes that had power points avalable, I have always printed them out, usually 3 or 4 to a page, depending on the teachers teaching style, and how I would take notes alonge with them. The more notes I took on the power points, the more helpful they were to me. Some teachers I would only have small notations of things they pointed out or elaborated on. Ones that used power points well as mostly a visual to guide their lecture, I usually had a full outline (Those are some notes I still have.) and often additional notebook pages added in for spillover notes. For those classes I use a small binder (1/2"-1" binder) to take to class with currant power points/notes, little extra paper, folder with sylibus/homework/handouts, and then have a larger binder I keep at home to compile notes in...usually emptying my small binder after the test covering the material. Classes with no printouts to compile, I usually use a notebook to take notes, and a folder to hold anything else.
I have a major tendency to write in different colors on different days both on power point, and in notebooks. I love the sharpie colored pens. It often has helped me find things in my notes, and to be able to tell when one days notes ended and another days started espcially when we stopped and continued in the middle of a power point slide. Often times I will think back and remeber taking notes about something and will remeber what color pen i wrote it in, and sometimes that helps me remeber the information, and other times it at least helps me find where i wrote it.
I really love the idea of making a study guide that someone mentioned. I have never done that, but that could be a very useful tool for me.....though probably help me more just in the process of making it.....am a very tactile learner. I will have to try that.
Notecards/flashcards can be helpful depending on the topic. Some people can use them for studying most things, me I am more limited and find them mostly useful for rote memorization, like termanology, abriviations, specifc numbers, putting things in order, steps to do something. Girl I took A&P with always had a stack with all kinds of information. Most of which would not have been helpful for me to put on notecards. Have to know where/how they would be useful for you.
PghRN30
318 Posts
For me it has varied. For classes that had power points avalable, I have always printed them out, usually 3 or 4 to a page, depending on the teachers teaching style, and how I would take notes alonge with them. The more notes I took on the power points, the more helpful they were to me. Some teachers I would only have small notations of things they pointed out or elaborated on. Ones that used power points well as mostly a visual to guide their lecture, I usually had a full outline (Those are some notes I still have.) and often additional notebook pages added in for spillover notes. For those classes I use a small binder (1/2"-1" binder) to take to class with currant power points/notes, little extra paper, folder with sylibus/homework/handouts, and then have a larger binder I keep at home to compile notes in...usually emptying my small binder after the test covering the material. Classes with no printouts to compile, I usually use a notebook to take notes, and a folder to hold anything else.
I have a major tendency to write in different colors on different days both on power point, and in notebooks. I love the sharpie colored pens. It often has helped me find things in my notes, and to be able to tell when one days notes ended and another days started espcially when we stopped and continued in the middle of a power point slide. Often times I will think back and remeber taking notes about something and will remeber what color pen i wrote it in, and sometimes that helps me remeber the information, and other times it at least helps me find where i wrote it.
I really love the idea of making a study guide that someone mentioned. I have never done that, but that could be a very useful tool for me.....though probably help me more just in the process of making it.....am a very tactile learner. I will have to try that.
Notecards/flashcards can be helpful depending on the topic. Some people can use them for studying most things, me I am more limited and find them mostly useful for rote memorization, like termanology, abriviations, specifc numbers, putting things in order, steps to do something. Girl I took A&P with always had a stack with all kinds of information. Most of which would not have been helpful for me to put on notecards. Have to know where/how they would be useful for you.