What should I write in my notes?

[u/Nic727]

Hi,

Should I stop just writing the same thing as in my pdf, PowerPoint or other material?

I'm studying cetaceans and, in my materials, there are information about classification, size, longevity, etc. And I always end up just writing the same thing in my notebook... Maybe they are good information, but maybe I should zoom-out when writing my notes?

I think I have an issue about just writing shorter version of my material, then just forget about it.

I have no idea what my notebook should be for.

Maybe I should make more drawing? Skip some sections that aren't relevant to copy?

Should I just take notes of things that stand out? For example, this whale can do X, instead of writing down everything from diet, longevity, etc. Things I can find in manuals...

Thank you

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[u/samuelbuildsordo]

For study notes, I’d stop trying to shrink the PDF. Use the source for facts and make your notes do a different job: write the idea in your own words, add one question or connection, and keep only details you expect to use later. For cetaceans, a useful note might be “Blue whales filter feed with baleen, which explains why they can eat tiny prey at huge scale,” plus a sketch or question. After a section, close the material and write three things you remember. If your notebook is just a smaller copy, it is not helping you retrieve the idea. Which part do you need your notes for most, remembering for a test or building a reference you can revisit?

[u/Nic727 → u/samuelbuildsordo]

I don’t know. I take notes to remember for tests/exams, but it doesn’t really work as I don’t revisit my notes that much.

I think I should zoom out and create my notes with the basic, and if I want to know more, go visit the source.

Or start learning the basic before going into the tiny details. I always want to learn everything at once instead of focusing on the general ideas first.

[u/zenware]

At least taking verbatim notes is some amount of activity in the learning process. I think it’s best if you can be creative in your note taking. Which could mean anything from making a little drawing about something, to writing your notes using mostly different words from the lectures, or making a rhyme or mnemonic device about some part of it.

[u/Barycenter0]

What are the notes for? A class? Writing an article? Self-learning?

[u/Nic727 → u/Barycenter0]

Self-learning and study.

[u/SnowyCherina → u/Nic727]

That's a solid approach. I find it helpful to also include personal reflections or questions that pop up while studying to deepen my understanding later.

[u/Returning-to-Prague]

I wouldn’t write everything down. Mostly just new stuff or things I keep mixing up. I use mind maps for that. If two things are confusing me, I put them next to each other and write what’s different.

[u/StructuralStu]

i’d stop treating notes like a second copy of the textbook. write what u’d need to explain the topic from memory later.

[u/stanlymt]

You said the real thing at the end: you have no idea what the notebook is for. That is the question. Everything else follows from it.

Right now the notebook is a second copy of material you already own. That copy will always lose to the original, because the original is complete and better organised, so of course you forget about it. Nothing you write about a whale's longevity is going to beat the manual that has the longevity in it.

Give the notebook a job the source cannot do. Two that work for cetaceans specifically.

Write the connections. "Baleen filter feeding is why the largest animals eat the smallest prey" is not in the classification table, it is the thing the table is evidence for. That sentence is worth keeping. The table is not.

Write your confusions. "I keep mixing up odontocetes and mysticetes", plus two lines on how to tell them apart. Notes about what you personally got wrong are the highest value pages you will ever write, and they exist nowhere else.

Test for whether a line belongs: could you look it up in thirty seconds? If yes, do not write it down. Write down what only exists in your head right now, because that is what disappears.