How to Take Effective Notes for Exam Preparation

 

Preparing for any exam from the class test, board exams or competitive exams requires a massive amount of hard work that goes towards preparation. Every exam brings a different type of challenge. Students need to be prepared for every challenge that comes their way and effectively tackle it. There are different methods of study which many people use for preparation. One important way of preparation is to makes notes during the study and in this blog, we will talk about different note-taking methods.

Why Notes Are Important?

Before getting into different note-taking methods. We need to understand why notes are important in the first place. Knowing how to make better notes not just only help you during your school and college but will also help you in your professional career. Here are few points which will help you to understand why notes are important for exams preparation –

1. Notes will help you revise quickly.
2. It will help you to memorize concepts and formulas.
3. It will save you the hustle of checking different books at the time of revision.
4. You will understand the topics better when you prepare from short notes.
5. Short notes will help you smartly manage the syllabus and topics.
6. It will help you to organize your ideas and make connections with different topics

How to Take Right Notes?

As every student starts his competitive exam like JEE Main and JEE Advanced preparation before his academic session starts. Having good study notes for these competitive exams is extremely helpful to crack the exam. Now the question arises is when to start making notes? You should start making notes daily after you have studied a topic and it’s still fresh on your mind. So, let’s have a look on at note-taking methods for the exam preparation –

Make Structured & Short Notes

Isn’t it obvious? The main idea behind making notes is that they should be precise and to the point. Your notes should cover important points, diagrams, heading, subheadings, and formulas of the topic you studied. Why you should do this? Because putting everything in the notes will make it lengthy and during revision, it will make your study harder. Well-made short notes help you cover many syllabi even if you have less time left for the exam.

Separate Notes for Each Subject

Many students make notes or highlight the important points in the books, which is okay when you have to study just that point. But it will be problematic if you want to add something more because books have limited space. It is advisable to create separate notebooks for each subject as it will be easier to revise and it will give you the freedom to add memory maps as well. Candidates should create an index in each notebook with a list of important topics.

Here is a quick overview of what you should be written down on the notes –

• Principles and Theories
• Important Highlights
• Examples and real-life demo
• Diagrams and Charts if applicable
• Timelines and if, new words
• Quotations and summaries
• References of the points

Mind Mapping for Notes

Mind mapping is a technique that involves a visual diagram that lets you organize your notes in a two-dimensional structure. It is created on a black canvas paper by putting the subject, topic, or headline in the center and write important points in the form of branches that scatter outwards from the center.

Mind map provides a great overview of the topic as you can study every point related to that topic on the same page. You can take more meaningful notes rather than filling your paper with large paragraphs. It will also help you memorize the notes, including images, icons, colors, and two-dimensional structures.

Image Credit: mindmeister.com

Use Examples in Notes

Examples make understanding things better. Many people think that examples are not required when they really do. If any teacher uses examples while teaching any topic, students will understand that topic better than without any example.

Let’s say you are making notes about a maths or physics formula. But if you don’t have any idea about when and how to use that formula, how helpful would that formula be? Not very much. If you use an example while making notes about a maths or physics formula you will have an idea of how to apply them to an actual situation.

Write Notes in Your Own Words

This point is super important. Don’t try to copy the points written in the textbooks, online, or explained by your teacher, instead write notes in your own words.

Why it is important? Let me tell you. You don’t do much thinking when you copy any points from books or any other places about the topic you are studying. While this sounds great as you don’t have to make any effort but on the other hand, the purpose of making notes will be lost.

When you write a note in your own words, you are processing that topic in your mind by understanding and reading that topic well. It will help you in the long run to remember the content.

Conclusion

Notes are like an advanced guide to revising the subjects you have studied. It is an essential part of your journey from study to exams. We all know that how hard these competitive like JEE Main & Advanced, NEET & Other exams are.

So, try to make notes that are well structured, more organized, and include fewer words. Making the right notes will save you a lot of time from rereading those topics many times.

These note-taking methods will make your exam preparation journey much simpler if you apply them seriously.

Originally published at https://commentsensortir.org/ on July 7, 2021.