Effective note making is a key element in scoring well and retaining as much as possible. In fact, note making is important even if you’re out of schools and colleges, when you’re attending seminars or important meetings. So here we have for you a few tips to help you make the best notes possible.

1) Your notes should be easily understandable and revisable, and most importantly, legible.

2) Note making is usually done in two phases; first is taking notes and second is shaping notes.

3) When you’re in a lecture pay close attention to what the speaker is saying. Most people just listen and write down whatever the lecturer says, which is futile since it makes things further more complicated for you. Pay attention so that you note down only the key points and the things that are of use t you.

4) Technical terms, definitions and bits of extra knowledge are the things you should target. If a teacher uses aids such as diagrams, tables, flow charts, etc. take them down because they are most useful to allow maximum retention.

5) Now comes the part where you shape them. Naturally, when you’re taking notes in a lecture, they will turn out to be chaotic because you may not have had the required time. The first thing to do is to club your notes as per topics and sub topics.

6) When that is done, divide them into points because making points has been known to help study better. Write them down carefully, everything divided into the appropriate topics and sub-topics.

7 ) Color Coding and making Mnemonics are other techniques that have been known to help make studying easier.