The  Notebook

 
 

Note-taking involves the recording of ideas and facts that one learns in class to help one remember and use later.  The five R’s of note-taking are as follows: Record, Reduce, Recite, Reflect, and Review.  Each term is defined at the Dartmouth Academic Skills Center page.

In the last three years of my 10 years of college, I finally figured out what to take my

notes in: The Composition Book! ( I prefer college rule.) They really wear well, they are not overly large and the pages are sewn in. Give it a try! I have returning students coming by and thanking me for the idea. They use them in all their classes, technical or not. Each notebook should contain a –


* Table of Contents,

* Homework Log (date assigned, title, problems given, due date, done check box)

  1. *Detachable “Summary of Formulas” which may be permitted on some exams

  2. *Next comes the day to day class notes.  As a new section starts enter it and the page number into the ToC


Students take these notebooks into the next level of Math as a reference to foundational information.


Some students use a separate notebook to take text notes in while they read the text (prior to doing HW).


To this day the only class notes on my shelf after 20+ years since college are those taken in these notebooks.  No bulky Three-Ring binders full of sagging pages or spineless spiral bound notebooks getting inter-tangled within themselves.