Making notes in sixth form

I'm starting sixth form in September and I know it would be really beneficial if I made notes as I go along - this will make exams much less stressful.

How often would it be best to make notes? Do you do yours everyday? at the end of the week? Fortnightly? Half-termly?

I just don't know how i would balance this with homework/assignments/coursework etc since the workload will be pretty heavy.

Thanks!

First of all you will be taking notes within your classes. However depending on your subject and teachers the amount of notes you take will be less than you did in class in GCSEs and they won't be on top of you to make sure you're taking down anything. You could make no notes in class or take down everything that's mentioned but you won't be explicitly told what to take down. There will be frequent gaps in the lesson where you can take down stuff or just twiddle your thumbs, so its up to you to make sure you get all the stuff you deem relevant.

I would recommend buying a A5 or A4 hardback note book for each subject so you consolidate your knowledge after each chapter or topic in your course. For reference in the sciences there about 15 chapters per year per subject. This allows you to review what you've learn't and recognise what you don't quite understand whilst its fresh in your mind. I also find that writing notes in your own words, rather than those from a powerpoint or text book, really helps the learning process. It also makes revising that much more easy because you already done all the learning.

The work load isn't that bad if you manage your time effectively. If you use your study periods effectively you may end up having less teacher-set work to do at home than you did at GCSE's, especially if you do 3 subjects. I did 5 a levels and played rugby 6 days a week and found it not too excessive .

What subjects are you taking.

Thanks for sharing I found that really useful
I'm taking English Language, Maths and Chemistry. Also how often did you re-write/ properly compile your notes though? As in I know you can just take notes in class anyway and I will, but after each college day do you put them together and make some more then? Or every other day?
I'm curious because you said you took 5 and that's no joke lol - congrats on balancing them all properly

I didn't have a strict timetable, I tried doing it every weekend but then I found I'd be in-between topics and it would be more useful to organise things into there little topics and then have ago. Also trying to do all your subjects at once, on the weekend is a bit tiresome and I struggled to maintain a good level of interest and concentration for an entire day, just making notes.

I'd make a list at the start of the week of what I thought I didn't fully understand or struggled at. Decide if I should make some condensed notes or do another exercise. Then I'd write what I'm going to do and when in my diary and stick to that plan. I found that to be more productive than just religiously making notes on everything I'd done.

For some things like the first few topics in maths you might find that either you've already done it or you understand it straight away, so making more notes would offer little reward. Sometimes you might find that your notes from class are perfectly adequate but you might need some more practice, which would be a lot better than making the same notes again. You shouldn't feel your making notes for the sake of it, but rather you should identify a goal e.g. ' be able to understand redox equations' and then making some clear notes might help you to do that.

Thanks that sounds great and I'll try doing that What were your 5 subjects btw?

First of all you will be taking notes within your classes. However depending on your subject and teachers the amount of notes you take will be less than you did in class in GCSEs and they won't be on top of you to make sure you're taking down anything. You could make no notes in class or take down everything that's mentioned but you won't be explicitly told what to take down. There will be frequent gaps in the lesson where you can take down stuff or just twiddle your thumbs, so its up to you to make sure you get all the stuff you deem relevant.

I would recommend buying a A5 or A4 hardback note book for each subject so you consolidate your knowledge after each chapter or topic in your course. For reference in the sciences there about 15 chapters per year per subject. This allows you to review what you've learn't and recognise what you don't quite understand whilst its fresh in your mind. I also find that writing notes in your own words, rather than those from a powerpoint or text book, really helps the learning process. It also makes revising that much more easy because you already done all the learning.

The work load isn't that bad if you manage your time effectively. If you use your study periods effectively you may end up having less teacher-set work to do at home than you did at GCSE's, especially if you do 3 subjects. I did 5 a levels and played rugby 6 days a week and found it not too excessive .

What subjects are you taking.

I personally found that making notes was generally easiest at the end of each week. Expanding and consolidating your class notes fortnightly would likely also be okay, however I think making notes every half-term would take up quite a lot of time, especially if you have work or revision to do on top of that, but that's just my opinion

Good luck!

you will make notes every lesson

you will then condense these notes at home/in your own independent study time

At my sixth form it's compulsory to make notes for each lesson prior to the lesson, then bring them to class where you can add to them and ask questions about the content. I usually do most of my note taking and homework in my study and free periods during school time which means I have a lot less to do at home.

How often though? did you do it just whenever or did it depend on the subject