Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences (PABS) School Office
Phone: 01273 642090 or 642014
Fax: 01273 642674
Email: Email us
Visit: Huxley Building Room H608
Making Notes - in Lectures and from Books
Throughout your degree you will need to take notes from a variety of sources including lectures, books, journals, newspapers, the Internet, videos and audio tapes. This may seem like a relatively simple concept but there are good and bad ways of making notes, as documented by Kneale (1999).
Making notes about anything requires concentration and thought - if you take notes from any source of information with your brain only half-engaged you will not learn from the process.
How do you make notes?
Lecture Notes Cover Sheet
To help structure your note taking in lectures and provide a clear summary of the lecture to use in revision, try using this lecture notes cover sheet. Click here for a copy.
There is no one way to make notes which suits everyone but the bullet points below give a few 'Do's' and 'Don'ts' (after Kneale, 1999, p. 57) which may help you to make more effective notes:
Activities which assist learning (do's):
Activities which slow down learning (don'ts):
Taking notes from lectures and presentations
Lectures and seminars tend to contain so much information that it is often difficult to know where to start making notes. Lecturing styles vary considerably, some lecturers will use handouts, others will use overheads, and some nothing.
A lecture is simply a means of teaching a large number of students the same information. If you have a question, just ask! Lots of other people are probably thinking the same thing but no one likes to ask.
Lecture notes cover sheet
Try using this sheet to help you summarise the theme, main points, conclusions and any questions you might have for each lecture you attend. Print out a load of copies, take one to each lecture and use it to structure your note taking. Click here to download a copy of the lecture notes cover sheet.
Abbreviations - to make note taking quicker and easier:
e.g. i.e. re. etc. p. para. Ch. Edn Info. Cd Wd Impt Devt Diff → |
for example that is, that means regarding and the rest page (pp. =pages ) Paragraph Chapter (Chs. = chapters) edition information could would important development difference this leads to/causes/produces |
NB C19 ♀ ♂ @ / = ≈ ≠ & w/ .·. b/c > < |
import, notice this
nineteenth century woman/female man/ male at per equal to/ same as almost equal to not equal to and with therefore because greater/better than less/smaller than |
"Get into a routine - same time, same place for your studying; get into a good study habit."
Emma Burton, Community Pharmaceutical Healthcare student
"Don't leave studies until the end! "
Candy Koenig, Pharmaceutical and Chemical Sciences student
"Make good use of your diary and enter dates to plan when you need to do the work."
Di Smith
