SHOW NOTES

Ep. 85 -

Taking notes in an efficient and effective way is key to good research, learning and revision.

Here are 4 things you DON'T want your teen doing when they're taking or making notes.

FEATURED ON THE SHOW:

• Episode 30: If It's Not Difficult, It's Not Doing Anything
   
• Episode 52: Active Revision
   
• Follow Rock Solid Study on Facebook
   
• Follow Rock Solid Study on Instagram
   
• Have your teen trained by me: 10 Week Grade Transformation Program
   
• Get the Free Parent Guide: 3 Huge Mistakes (Even Smart!) Students Make in Exams and Assignments - and how to fix them immediately so your teen confidently achieves their best ever grades

TRANSCRIPT:
 

You’re listening to The Parents of Hardworking Teens Podcast, episode 85 - all about note-taking. Specifically, how NOT to note-take so that your teen doesn’t fall into some of the traps that I see preventing students from being as effective and efficient as they could be with their note-taking. 

Hey VIPs. How are you? I hope you’re doing great. I have had a really busy week and have another really busy week ahead but I’m really trying to embrace the busy and thrive on it as opposed to let it get me down. Because as much as I do sometimes get a little bit overwhelmed and always feel like I have so much to do - and look, I don't even have children so I really don't know how a lot of you do it - but I've also realised over the past year or so, and I have talked about this on the podcast, that I actually am much better when I'm busy. I thrive on being busy. I'm more effective when I'm busy. So I'm really trying to be conscious and aware of that and use it to my advantage or to my happiness as I go. Like yesterday, I actually had what I would call a perfect Tetris day - you know when you slot all of the tasks and all of the times together. And it did help honestly that I had nice things to happen at the end of the day rather than it all just being chores or work.

Because the final thing on the agenda was meeting up with friends, having an early dinner and then going to the movies. The rest of it was all work - back to back to back. I didn’t even do the gym or a dog walk. But, it was actually also a really nice mix of work things and fun things. Zero break between any of it, but having that mix was really helpful. 

I’ve been sleeping really badly lately, and I did then sleep really well too. Or at least well for me.  So, just thought I’d share that. In case embracing the busy is an option for you or your teen on those days when there’s just a LOT on.

One of the reasons things have been busy is because I’ve been inviting replies from everyone on my email list at the moment. And this is where this episode has developed from. One of the things I got asked a few times about was tips on note-taking. For example, Carolyn wrote: 

If you have not yet covered an episode or a video of summarising or note-taking strategies, I would be keen to tune into this one. 

And honestly, I thought ‘I must’ve done a podcast episode on note-taking to be able to send them that as a starting point. And I checked back through and it turns out NO. I haven’t done an episode just on note-taking. 

I do have a whole module on it in the 10 Week Grade Transformation program AND I’ve been working with a student on this in coaching recently so that’s probably why I thought I had.  So, that’s what I’m doing this week. 

We’re going to have an episode all about how you can help your teen become a better note-taker.

Obviously it’s impossible to really show and train any kind of note-taking on a podcast audio. It’s not easy to show or share real examples like I like to do.  So here’s how I’m going to approach this. I’m going to share some of the WORST ways I see students taking notes so that you can look out for this with your teen. Because weirdly, there are some things - some concepts, some teachings in life where it’s just easier to describe what not to do, when you can’t actually visually and practically show what TO do. Does that make sense? 

Okay, so here are the 5 things NOT to do when note-taking:

The first thing I want to start with here is just COPYING OUT.

Producing pages and pages of notes. Feels productive. Your teen might feel pretty accomplished, but it’s not really doing anything except moving words or diagrams from one piece of paper or screen to another.

In fact, let’s actually start there. That is actually my number 1 thing:

Do NOT type out your notes.

I see students typing out notes and I cringe. 

Unless your teen has a diagnosed or specific medical or physical reason why typing needs to happen instead of handwriting, then that is the first way NOT to note-take.

Now, many students will say that typing is faster and easier. And those are actually the exact reasons why it’s NOT a good idea. Easy means it’s not doing anything. We lift the easy weights at the gym - we’re not getting stronger or fitter. We’re just moving weights around. 

I remember hearing a trainer in a gym I went to years ago who was running a PT session for a teenage boy - who actually wanted to do the opposite - he just wanted to lift the big heavy weights and the trainer was trying to explain that good form and technique would actually get him better results than just lifting heavy weights without full range. And he said ‘are we trying to build muscle, or are we just trying to move some weights around the gym?’ 

We’ll get onto the form, the technique of note-taking in a moment.

But easier means our brain isn’t having to do much and therefore, it’s not an effective way to learn, process or retain information. And faster - that means that we’re not forced to condense or convert information. Which is my second point. It was actually down as my first, but we’ve now got an extra one. 

Handwrite don’t type. 

That’s now the top one. Lots of additional research out there too on why it’s more effective for learning and revision - you can do a bit of googling on that - this will turn into a VERY long episode if I start getting into that now.

Okay next way NOT to note-take. 

Just copying out.

So they are NOT condensing the information. So they aren’t processing what is the most important info or how to cut down the wording. They are not using any kind of shorthand - not full secretarial shorthand - just in terms of basic symbols like the therefore symbol or using arrows, symbols or letters for long but common subject terminology. These are both important for speeding up the process of actually taking or making the notes AND for their brains to be actively processing the words and information. Just copying out is longer and not doing anything cognitively.

Also, when they are copying out, they are not TRANSFORMING the information in any way. Now, I have talked about this before in the episode all about Active Revision. That’s in episode 52 where I explain how and why it’s so important to change the format of the information in some way. 

It might be changing notes into a time line, it might be changing a diagram into a flow chart, a novel into a character web, or any of those more visual things into summary notes. 

Nothing wrong with written notes - just not if the original format was written notes, which, of course it so often is. 

So not transforming the info. AND then on top of that, not intentionally deciding on the best or most appropriate format for the notes.

For more traditional forms, is the Cornell method best? Would a mind map be best?

That is a process in itself, considering how am I going to be using these notes/ or this info?  What would be the most effective format? All of this contributes to making note-taking effective as well as efficient.

Okay, then finally, how not to note-take is to NOT have anything visual. And I’m not talking here about making those beautiful pinterest style notes. I’m not talking about making everything visually attractive, I’m talking about activating those visual receptor parts of the brain. So spacing on the page - putting connected points together spatially. Literally drawing connections between concepts or evidence. Colour coding different elements or themes. 

In fact, that’s a thing NOT to do.

Do NOT make them pretty and perfect. In fact, that ties back to the handwriting not typing. During study,  during learning and revision, scruffy handwriting isn’t a reason to type. As long as your teen can understand what they’ve written, that will be more effective for them. They need their writing to legible for a marker, but when it comes to their own study, they need it to be legible to them. 

I’d rather they spent the same amount of time, creating three different versions and formats of the information in a basic or more scruffy way than having one beautiful and perfect page. 

Less beautiful but way more effective use of time. 

I could probably do a whole episode on this aspect of study alone. So I won’t go into it too much here. I wanted this episode to be snappy and impactful with plenty of takeaways. 

So let’s recap them now as a clear summary. 

Remember, full module on How TO Note take effectively, what systems to use, and how and in what ways all in the 10 week program. 

But for here on this episode, here’s how NOT to note take:

1) Typing notes. It might be faster and easier, but that’s not a good thing.

2) Copying out. Writing out full sentences without condensing or using some informal shorthand and or just copying out a diagram or table as is.

On that note. 

3) Keeping information in the same format. Be intentional about what different format would be most appropriate to the info, the upcoming task, or even just how your brain works best.

4) Not using visuals. That could be sketches, spacing, connections, colour coding. Not using those means your teen is missing out on ways to process and better memorise information.

So, there we go. How NOT to note-take. 

If your teen IS doing any of those things, remember, this is GOOD news. It means there’s a whole lot of potential for them to improve their confidence and results in their study.

So Carolyn and everyone else listening to this, I hope you found this helpful. If you have a request for a future episode, please email support@rocksolidstudy.com and I’ll add it to my long ‘podcast ideas list' or if it’s already on there, I’ll bump it up to the top. 

I hope you have a GREAT rest of your week and I’ll meet you back here next week . 
See ya, bye!