Learning how to take good notes is key to surviving nursing school. It’s basically like making your own study guide for the exams! Try the following note taking tips and see the change in your own studying.
Bring Your Computer
Always, always, always bring your computer to class! You can only take handwritten notes so fast, so bring your computer to class and type out your lecture notes. It also makes it much easier to follow along with the lecture if you have it downloaded ahead of time on your own computer.
Download Lectures Ahead of Time
Before starting class, check the syllabus to see what the lecture is going to cover and if the professor posted any of the lecture slides ahead of time. If they did, great! Download the slides before lecture so you can follow along in class on your own device. Some professors will post the slides after the lecture has taken place so if this is the case, take notes elsewhere and transfer them into the lecture slides after class.
Take Notes on Each Slide
By downloading the lecture ahead of time, you can take notes on each slide. This helps keep your notes organized, plus you can refer back to what the professor stressed was most important on each slide. Which you’ll likely want to study because if they made it a point in lecture, it’s likely going to be on the exam!
Hand Write Important Notes
Most people find benefit in handwriting their lecture notes. In fact, some people find handwriting notes to be a crucial part of studying. Is this you? Are you more of a tactile/kinesthetic learner? If so, I still urge you to bring your computer to class to take faster notes. But when you’re going back over notes during your personal study time, dissect the most important information and write it down, pen and paper style. This way you’re still saving time by typing notes in class, but you’re staying true to your tactile/kinesthetic learning style by handwriting notes afterwards.
Read and Highlight
Some students work best by reading their textbook before lecture while others work best by reading after lectures, so find what works for you and stick to it. Sometimes it may seem like reading is the last thing you have time for but make time for it! Professors aren’t just going to pull exam questions from their lectures, so it’s important to at least skim the textbook while studying.
Be sure to highlight and take notes while reading (or skimming). This way when you’re studying and something comes up that you need to review, you know exactly where to go back and reference instead of having to read it all over again. The act of highlighting and taking notes also keeps your brain more engaged in the content and will help all the visual and tactile learners out there.
Visit How to Successfully Read and Understand Nursing Textbooks for more information.
Record Lectures
Some professors will even let you record their lectures so that you can listen to them again for study purposes. However, not all professors will okay this, and you can actually get in big trouble recording lectures without the professors’ consent. So be sure to get their consent ahead of time and let them know that it’s for study purposes only. Relistening to lectures is great for when you’re driving to and from clinical or working out at the gym. And it’s perfect for auditory learners!
And that’s it! Six tips to help you take better notes in nursing school. Try them out and comment what works best for you bellow!
If you’re a Pre-Nursing student, check out Tips for Pre-Nursing Students to be Successful in Nursing School.
Also be sure to visit the following posts for more nursing school hacks!
- Nursing School Must Haves
- How to Survive Nursing School
- How to be Successful in Nursing School
- What to Expect in Nursing School: Expectations Versus Reality
- Managing and Preventing Student Stress
- And the entire Nursing Fundamentals Series