Should I take notes before class?

For some of my subjects, my teachers upload the work before class. Some ppl say reading the material and writing notes before class is helpful. Idk if i should do that cause others say its a waste of time. for those subjects (where i get info before which is bio and pysch) I can't finish my notes in class anyway and have to finish it after but idk if i can sit in class all lesson rehearing the info because i have adhd and lose interest very quickly especially if i don't have to do something (e.g. class discussions or the teacher talking). Like if I just sit there and add a few points

Should i take notes before or not?

Thanks in advance cause it was a loonnngg question!

Don’t take notes in class

What I do is is write questions for myself while the teacher is talking, like a full page on just questions
Then after class I try answering them, and then if I can’t I then go onto checking the textbook for answer.
Then I repeat

Reply 2

Rabbit2

18

That is an interesting approach - i had not encountered it before. I would think that at least 'roughing out' your notes before class might be helpful. I don't take shorthand. Me mum was a legal secretary, and on numerous occasions i was in her office (whilest i was in high school), and heard her and her mates trying to 're-construct' depositions that had been taken 2 or 3 years before. Depositions are written statements by witnesses, which are admissible in court and become part of the legal record. I was amazed to hear these 'professional' secretaries reading shorthand notes of a deposition, and coming up with 8 or 10 (or more) versions that differed very substantially in fact from each other. I decided that if there was that much variation when professionals did it, i would stick to tape recording - which i did. I taped nearly all my classes when i was working on my MSEE degree [master of science, electrical engineering]. I would leave lots of blank space in my notes [using a loose leaf note book - so i could put in extra pages when needed], and fill them in when i played the tape back over the next few days. Today, of course, you can get completely electronic recorders, which are much better quality. Either way, you would get 'more complete' notes of the class, than only taking them 'live' whilest sitting in the class.

I would also keep track of the amount of time that an instructor would spend on a particular topic, and how much work they did - did they just talk about it, draw something on the board, draw something really complicated, give the students pre-prepared hand-outs, have viewgraphs [with overhead projector] made up ahead of time... Each of these was more work for the instructor, and showed that they thought that this particular topic was more important. I would add up the number of minutes at each 'work level' that the instructor had put in on a particular topic [multiplied by the 'work level']. The total would give a rough measure of the importance of that topic to the course (in the instructor's mind). I found that this indicated fairly accurately the liklihood of a question on that topic appearing on the next exam. Best of luck!!

Reply 3

bex6976

11

I would definitely be using spare time to read ahead. Not necessarily writing notes but being ahead and having a basic understanding of what you are about to be taught is really helpful - to be honest I need to do this more often, but I only do it if I have a free or chunk of time to spare

Reply 4

isabellazafe

OP

11

thanks for all the replies. its the most i've ever gotten ahah

Reply 5

Rabbit2

18

Original post by bex6976

I would definitely be using spare time to read ahead. Not necessarily writing notes but being ahead and having a basic understanding of what you are about to be taught is really helpful - to be honest I need to do this more often, but I only do it if I have a free or chunk of time to spare

If you can find what 'parallel text' the instructor is using - [this is a textbook that presents basically the same information that the assigned text does, but was written by different authors and published by a different publisher] - you should get nearly an exact transcript of the instructor's class lecture. Most instructors also use this book [usually it's only one], to get questions for their class exams. I took two classes in my checkered academic career - they were miles, states, and years apart. In one of them, the instructor used the worked out 'example' questions in his parallel text (the ones that are worked out all the way to the final answer) for about 70% of the questions on his exams. The other course, that instructor (different instructor and parallel test of course), used those example questions for 100% of his exam questions. I found that to be REALLY delightful!! The parallel text is often considerably older that what is currently on sale. You might find that your instructor is using the '4th edition' of his parallel text, whilst bookshops are currently selling the 19th or 20th edition of it. Since academic textbooks are nearly always completely re-written for each new edition, you need to get the EXACT edition that your instructor is using, for it to do you any good at all. I suspect that the instructor may have used the parallel text he is using when he was a student taking the course as an undergraduate. Best of luck!!

Reply 6

isabellazafe

OP

11

Original post by Rabbit2

If you can find what 'parallel text' the instructor is using - [this is a textbook that presents basically the same information that the assigned text does, but was written by different authors and published by a different publisher] - you should get nearly an exact transcript of the instructor's class lecture. Most instructors also use this book [usually it's only one], to get questions for their class exams. I took two classes in my checkered academic career - they were miles, states, and years apart. In one of them, the instructor used the worked out 'example' questions in his parallel text (the ones that are worked out all the way to the final answer) for about 70% of the questions on his exams. The other course, that instructor (different instructor and parallel test of course), used those example questions for 100% of his exam questions. I found that to be REALLY delightful!! The parallel text is often considerably older that what is currently on sale. You might find that your instructor is using the '4th edition' of his parallel text, whilst bookshops are currently selling the 19th or 20th edition of it. Since academic textbooks are nearly always completely re-written for each new edition, you need to get the EXACT edition that your instructor is using, for it to do you any good at all. I suspect that the instructor may have used the parallel text he is using when he was a student taking the course as an undergraduate. Best of luck!!

will this work for high school as well? I'm assuming you're in college because our exams are written by a board each year

Reply 7

Rabbit2

18

Original post by isabellazafe

will this work for high school as well? I'm assuming you're in college because our exams are written by a board each year

i would assume that it should work for anything - including a first aid course. If the instructor does not make up the exam(s) themselves, then they should have been told [or had their course syllabus approved] setting out how much emphasis to put on each subject, and which subjects to cover in the course. This should directly track (i would assume) the most important items to be covered in the course, and these items should be the ones most likely to be targeted by exam questions. The same thing should be true of 'lower level' courses - like freshman English at uni. In a larger school (Uni), there might be 3 or 4 instructors teaching this, each with 3 or 4 'sections'. Clearly, you would not want to have each section, or each instructor giving these classes to use different exams. The idea, of course, is to make sure that all sections are properly prepared for sophomore English - so you would want to make sure the curriculum of each section was the same. This would require that the exams of each section be the same too.

Reply 8

Rabbit2

18

Original post by isabellazafe

will this work for high school as well? I'm assuming you're in college because our exams are written by a board each year

Actually, i developed this technique in grad school, whilst i was working on my masters in electrical engineering [MSEE]. I wish that i had known it while i was in high school, and i suspect that about 12 of my classmates DID - because they all got straight "A's" - while never seeming to do any work at all. They were always out in the pasture fooling around with their horses - hunt club, fox hunting, etc..... that class of people... NEVER seemed to do any academic work. Later - in high school - i had a chance to check their IQ scores. The closest to me was 17 points below me. Now IQ scores are variable - you take a test one day, after having been up all night with the flu, and get X. A few months later, feeling great + with a full night's sleep you take another one, and get X+7. Normally, a variation of 5 points is considered 'normal variation'. 17 points however, indicates a significant difference. Here i have someone 17 points below me getting basically all A's, while i get C's, D's, and the occasional F. I couldn't figure this out at all (at the time). I think i have now - they were doing what i suggested here. To be fair, me dad never finished 8th grade, and me mum finished high school + then went to a small secretarial school. That was the limits of their education. Me dad thought the way to 'motivate' a student was to beat on them. I never found that that helped. This technique does (at least for me and a couple of me mates). I really think that i would be sitting here WITHOUT a master's degree, had i not figured it out. I wish you luck with it!! Cheers.

Should I take notes before class?

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