D ivide the paper into three sections.

  • Draw a dark horizontal line about 5 or 6 lines from the bottom. Use a heavy magic marker to draw the line so that it is clear.



  • Draw a dark vertical line about 2 inches from the left side of the paper from the top to the horizontal line.

 
A piece of paper divided into sections

D ocument
  • Write course name, date, and topic at the top of each page.


A sectioned piece of paper indicating where to place the course, your name, and date.
W rite notes.
  • The large box to the right is for writing notes.

  • Skip a line between ideas and topics.

  • Don't use complete sentences. Use abbreviations, whenever possible. Develop a shorthand of your own, such as using "&" for the word "and".



A page showing the key points and the notes in the middle sections of the page.


R eview and clarify.

  • Review the notes as soon as possible after class.

  • Pull out main ideas, key points, dates, and people, and write these in the left column.



Review and clarify then pull out the main ideas.


S ummarize.
  • Write a summary of the main ideas in the bottom section.



Indicating where to write the summary on the page.
S tudy your notes.

  • Re-read your notes in the right column.

  • Spend most of your time studying the ideas in the left column and the summary at the bottom. These are the most important ideas and will probably include most of the information that you will be tested on.






An A+ paper.
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