Notes are an inherent part of the VCE culture and are something which all students should aim to make during their VCE. However, there are effective and ineffective ways of making notes, and in this section, we are going to cover some of the ways you can make your notes.
Again, these are just suggestions for you and there is no one way to make notes.
- You want to summarise and not repeat – in your notes, you want to summarise the key points from a particular topic and not just copy out what is already in the textbook or what was said by your teacher/tutor.
- Simplicity – you want your notes to be simple and to the point.
- Make your notes throughout the year – don’t wait until the end of the year to make your notes. Get into the habit of summarising key content throughout the year as this will help you with your exam revision. Likewise, it will also help you with your SAC revision as making your notes will give you an opportunity to go over what you have learnt, and fill in any gaps in your knowledge of the particular topic.
- Use colour – have colour in your notes. Use them to highlight key points.
- Typed or handwritten notes? – this is the age-old debate: should you type up your notes or hand-write them? There is no one clear answer, and so the tip here is to do what is best and comfortable for you. If you prefer to type up your notes then go for it or if you want to hand write them then go for it.
- Buying notes – there are companies such as Learnmate that sell notes written by tutors. The advice here is not to encourage you not to buy these notes, as they are another reference for you: however, you should not rely solely on these notes for your studies. Making your own notes will personalise them and this will help you in remembering the content, as the notes have been written by you. You can use other people’s notes to incorporate into your own notes, but don’t just rely on them on their own.
- Use study design dot points as headings – if you are stuck on a way to structure your notes, use the dot points in the key knowledge section of the study design for your relevant subject as your headings. Your exam will be based on what is listed in the study design, and this is a good way to ensure that you learn everything that you need for the exam.
The following links give you some more tips on taking notes in class and making notes:
- https://www.wits.ac.za/ccdu/academic-skills/note-taking-and-note-making/
- http://learnline.cdu.edu.au/studyskills/studyskills/intronotemaking.html
- https://www2.le.ac.uk/offices/ld/resources/study/notes
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