Prior to entering college, every High School student must take the College Placement Test. Many actually harbor erroneous beliefs about this exam, so that students who are not really doing well in their studies start searching for an excellent College Placement Test Study Guide which will help them to pass the test.

But what is the College Placement Test (CPT)? The CPT is a mandatory exam that is given to students who wish to study in specific colleges and universities and technical schools in the United States. It tests the student’s proficiency in four specific areas, namely reading, writing, mathematics, and algebra. In some types of CPT, there is an additional section for College Level Math. Students whose first language is not English will be required to take an additional Levels Of English Proficiency tests (LOEP).

Simply put, the CPT will help you to determine if you have the necessary skills required to be able to succeed at the college course of your choice. There is no pass or fail in the CPT. Your scores will be evaluated if they are suitable for your select college course. If your current skills do not fall within the range required for the college course, you will be given the opportunity to take a retest or you will be advised to go into a course that is suited to your talents and abilities.

The CPT is being administered online throughout the year, although you may need to inquire with the testing center regarding schedules. You will not be under time pressure when you take the CPT (on average, it will only take 90 minutes to complete the entire test). You also have the option to complete the test on a number of days within a period of 2 weeks. There is absolutely no pressure on your part when you take the CPT.

However, if you are dead set on a certain college course, you will need to refresh your basic learning skills so that you will have a better score in the CPT. This is where College Placement Test Study Guides come in.

CPT Study Guides can be purchased in your local bookstore. They are also being offered by testing centers and some community colleges. You can also find these study guides online. The CPT study guides follow the exact same format as the exam itself. They are divided into tests for Reading Comprehension, Sentence Skills (Writing), and Mathematics (Arithmetic, Basic Algebra, and College Level Math). What makes these study guides very useful is that they not only show the right answers to the questions, they will also provide you with complete explanations to the questions where you got the answers wrong.

To get the most out of study guides, it is advisable to purchase not just one but at the most three such guides. You will have a better chance of doing well at the CPT if you practice answering a variety of questions from these study guides.

Learn more about the College Placement Test Study Guide today!

If there is any skill that any student would want to acquire, it is how to study well in college. A good – or, better yet, excellent – academic performance can be the stepping stone to better employment opportunities. During these financially-stricken times, having a good education is one of the ways by which a student can secure a bright future for himself/herself.

Although there are many “how to study well tips” being offered both in print media and on the World Wide Web, they will be ineffective if the student does not exert time and effort into making these tips habits, and not just something they do when a test or major exam is coming up. These study strategies and habits are best carried on throughout an individual’s life. After all, learning is a never ending process.

Key Factors in Enhancing Learning and Memory

If you want to learn how to study well and faster, there are five key factors that you need to address specifically if you are to enhance your memory and learning.

These five factors are listed below and will be discussed in full one by one.

1) The amount of STUDY TIME you allot in your daily schedule (this excludes lecture and homework times) and if you are using said time appropriately.

2) Your STUDY PLACE and when you use it.

3) How you enter information into your SHORT-TERM MEMORY (STM)

4) How you encode information from your STM into your LONG-TERM MEMORY (LTM)

5) How to RETRIEVE INFORMATION from your memory, particularly during exams.

The Importance of Study Time

The most important factor when it comes to know how to study well in college is the proper utilization of study time. Take note, however, that when we say “study time”, we are not talking about those long hours and all-nighters that you pull when cramming for an exam.

Research studies have shown that the best study times are those with a duration of only 30 minutes to 1 hour, with 10 minute breaks in between. The reason for the shorter duration is that studying for longer than an hour leads to diminishing concentration. If you cannot concentrate because your mind is exhausted, learning and information retention is hampered. This is what happens to students who do study regularly but for longer periods. The long duration tires their minds, so that they retain less of what they read in their textbooks, consequently getting poor grades.

Psychologists offer a strategy on how to improve concentration while studying. As you are reading your textbook, be very aware of the moments when your mind starts to wander and/or what you are studying stops registering inside your head. Once you notice this happening to you, take a short break. When you go back to your reading, make sure that you read at a faster pace. Much like driving at a faster speed forces your mind to focus on the road, so too will faster reading cause your mind to concentrate more on what you are studying.

Students who have slow reading and comprehension are advised to take speed reading classes in order to improve in their study habits.

Alternating Study Locations

In the past, educators strongly encourage their students to study in quiet locations that are conducive to learning. The study location that always comes highly recommended is the university library. However, recent research studies on learning have shown that not all students can study in somber environments like libraries. In fact, it is more effective alternate study places instead of just sticking to the library.

The reason for this lies in the workings of human cognition. Information retention is increased when it is “colored” by the location and the student’s mood. The more the environment is related to the subject matter, the greater will be the amount of facts that he or she will retain inside her mind. As a concrete example, Biochemistry students are encouraged to learn more if they are in a related location, such as a chemistry lab with its many beakers and bottles containing chemical reagents and charts of chemical formulas.

Did you know that, in these same studies, researchers have found that students perform better in their exams if they study in a room similar to the place where they will be taking the test? If you have a test coming up, you might want to consider reviewing past lessons in the exam room itself or in a similar-looking lecture hall.

A student’s mood can also affect his or her memory retention. For example, bad mood resulting from a quarrel with parents or break up from a boyfriend or girlfriend can hamper study concentration. On the other hand, those who want to know how to study well may find themselves having to read on unpleasant historical events and similar subject matter. This would make it difficult for the student to delve into the deeper details of the study material. To resolve mood difficulties, you must find the best environment which will put you in the mood for studying.

Entering Knowledge in Short-Term Memory (STM)

Cram sessions and all-nighters are largely ineffective because they primarily rely on STM. At the most you can only remember 5 to 9 items or facts at a time. If you don’t review these facts constantly, it will only stay in your memory for 15 to 20 seconds. Most students will find their minds blanking out during the test. Even if they do pass, everything that they have learned while cramming will be completely forgotten 2 weeks later.

An excellent technique for inputting information in STM is “chunking”, wherein you reorganize related facts into easy-to-memorize clusters or “chunks”. Limitations of this article prevent us from going into detail about this technique, so simply check out online tutorials.

Encoding Knowledge in Long-Term Memory (LTM)

Knowing how to study well for tests would entail learning the strategies by which knowledge and information that has been inputted in STM are to be transferred and firmly encoded in LTM.

Overlearning is one such strategy wherein you “practice” memorizing and recalling facts until you remember them perfectly. This strategy was used when you memorized the multiplication table. Another strategy, called Elaboration, involves organizing new, learned facts so that you can easily connect them to the existing information that is stored inside your head.

For further reading, you can research on effective strategies like Mnemonics, the Peg Word Method, and the Loci Method on the Internet.

Knowledge Retrieval

Retrieving the knowledge that you have learned from your memory can be very easy if you had followed the strategies that have been mentioned earlier.

Test and exams should never be viewed as the “enemy”. In fact, they have been designed to help you remember the things you have learned. The main bulk of exams contain “cues” for the recall of specific facts. This would include True or False, Matching Type and Multiple Choice. The more difficult Fill In The Blank, Enumeration and Essay questions are to test your understanding of the material you had learned. The easier test sections will provide you with sufficient cues on how to answer the more difficult parts of the exam. Use these cues to allow your mind to dig deeper into your memory for the details.

Learn more about these effective learning strategies in order to know how to study well in college today!

All students are on the lookout for any useful tips for studying for college. After all, they need all the excellent advice that they can get so that they can develop the necessary study and learning skills which will enable them to get good grades.

It is interesting to note that many of these study advices are also the important tips for studying for exams. Let us take a look at some very help tips for college studying…

1. Manage your college schedule wisely. Education experts no longer recommend that you limit your studying to after class hours. It is better if you can read your notes and study for the next classes during breaks. You might also want to consider doing your homework as well during break. This will leave you with an hour or two in the evening to simply do reviews and reading assignments.
2.  Make use of all the study resources that are available to you. Don’t just limit yourself to the library. Ask your professor if he or she can lend you some supplemental reading material. Make use of the Internet facilities in the school for doing additional research. If you are stumped by experiments in class, you can ask permission from your professor if you could use the lab to perform the experiment again.
3. Form a study group. Get 3 to 5 classmates to join you in the group. Research has shown that students in study groups do better in exams because they are able to share and simplify knowledge learned in class for the benefit of everyone. Also, discussing the subject matter will make it easy for you to comprehend difficult topics. There is also the added benefit that you can test each other’s knowledge so that you will be more prepared for exams.
4. Always review your notes. Daily reviews are more effective than cramming in that constant memorization and reading of the information will allow knowledge to be encoded firmly in your long-term memory. Always take the time to read and review your notes during class breaks. During semester or term breaks, do not just go gallivanting around with friends. Try to get some review and advance reading done. You might want to consider doing reviews especially during the last 5 to 7 days of your term break. In this way, subject matter and topics that you have learned in the previous months will continue to be fresh inside your mind.
5. Go for tutorials. If you are having problems with your studies, you might want to consider getting a tutor. Some college professors will offer tutorial and review classes especially when Final exams are coming up.
6. Be resourceful. While some educators may look at this practice as a form of cheating, this is one of the many important tips for studying for finals that senior college students will give you. Here, you and your classmates are advised to coordinate during term exams to compile the questions that have been asked in each of the tests. The usual practice is that each classmate is asked to jot down the questions and answers in a separate sheet of paper when they are returned for review. All of these questions and answers are then compiled into one study guide, which a student can use to test his or her knowledge prior to Finals. There is also the advantage that some professors may actually repeat questions from previous term exams.

Learn more tips for studying for college today!

When an individual graduates from High School, he or she will soon face the challenge of college entrance exams in order to get into the university of his/her choice. While most graduates will get good grades in college placement tests, they will soon be dismayed to learn that the college they selected will not accept them.

This is because college administrators will not just only look at the scores of the placement tests. They also need to take a closer look at how the student performed in High School. If the student had inconsistent grades, most likely, they will not accept them.

College rejection can be a very heavy pall on the minds of students. Because they have been rejected, they would soon start thinking themselves as failures. Some would even be burdened by the disappointment of their parents, who have wanted them to get into that school. Sadly, because the rejection ultimately becomes a mental burden, it will soon wreak its impact on a student’s study habits in another school.

Here are some tips to help you deal with college rejection.

If you have been rejected by the college of your choice, do not think of it as the end of the world. Go to the college administrator and ask directly why your application was rejected. If you have low scores in your college placement exam, think about retaking the test and re-applying again to the same college.

Do not allow your mind to dwell on negative thoughts, especially if you are forced to study in a university that you don’t like. Just because the college you got stuck in is not at par with the university that is your first choice, it does not mean that you won’t get quality education. In fact, if you really want to learn, it doesn’t matter which college you go to. Instead of sulking on what could’ve been, explore your new school.

Discover the many study resources that are available to you. If you feel that a professor is not teaching you enough or is not clear in his/her lectures, make it a point to study outside of class by reading reference books in the library. Who knows? If you get good grades in your current college, you might be able to apply for a transfer to your choice university.

Never allow your self-confidence to be bogged down by the college rejection. Instead, work on making great achievements in your current school. Also, make friends with people whose study goals are similar to yours. These friends will help boost you up when you are feeling down and enable you to recover your self-esteem.

Discover other useful tips on how to deal with college rejection today!

For all college students, Finals is the ultimate obstacle that they must hurdle. It is either they pass the exams and move on to a higher year or get stuck on the same level for another 12 months.

The problem with Final exams is that they would encompass subject material for the entire school year. For those who have a tendency to cram at the very last minute, it is practically impossible to study and review so many topics in a matter of hours.

If you want to pass your Final exams with flying colors, here are some tips that you should follow.

1. Start studying as early as the first day of school. The best way to pass your Finals is by studying diligently and regularly since Day 1. Take note that when we say “studying”, we don’t mean that you need to memorize your textbooks. Reinforce what you are learning by reading your textbooks and notes repeatedly. The greater you are exposed to the study material and the more that you repeat reading, memorizing and understanding them, the greater will be your retention of information.

2. Always attend classes. Except when you are sick, it is strongly advised that you attend your classes regularly. Most professors will ask questions in tests, including Finals, on topics that they have lectured in class. If you miss even a single class, you are likely to lose out on vital information that might be asked during Finals.

3. Make good notes and study aids. To make it easier for you to review during Finals, early on, develop the skill of taking down good notes. There are many tutorials on the Internet on the various techniques of note-taking. You should also consider making study aids, such as flash cards for definitions and important historical dates. These study aids will help you to remember bits of information, and you can use them to refresh your memory when studying for college.

4. Go for Group Study. Having a study group with classmates and/or friends will help you to understand difficult concepts taught in class. You can discuss the subject matter between you and even give each other pop quizzes to test each other’s knowledge.

5. Ask help from your professor. If you are having trouble understanding the subject matter, do not be ashamed to approach your professor and ask for their help. He or she would want you to succeed in Finals. Naturally, they will be very willing to sit down with you and help you with your study difficulties.

Learn about other useful tips on studying for Finals today!

When studying in college, a lot of students tend to sacrifice their health in order to get good grades. However, if you are not taking good care of your body, there is a strong chance that your immune system will break down and you will get sick. And believe me when I tell you that you cannot afford being absent especially on days when there is an important lecture or a test.

Here are some health tips that you need to keep in mind while studying in college.

First of all, make sure that you eat a healthy, nutritious diet. Cut down on the junk foods. Instead, go for healthier substitutes, like crunchy veggies and fruit slices. Some nutritionists advise that you take more of protein to keep your brain nourished. In addition, for optimum brain functioning, make sure that you eat foods that are rich in the B complex vitamins.

Next, make improvements in your eating habits. Many students tend to oversleep after all night studying and dash off to class without eating breakfast. The one meal that you should never skip is breakfast. Eat a heavy breakfast in the morning so that both your body and your mind will be refreshed for the busy day ahead. Eat a lot of proteins during breakfast to nourish your brain. Protein deficiency can actually cause headaches to develop. During lunchtime, it is better that you eat a light meal. Eating heavy lunches may make you drowsy during your afternoon classes.

If your diet is deficient in essential nutrients, ask your college physician if you can take supplements. Vitamin B complex supplements are ones that you cannot do without. If you are having problems with memory or cognition, you might want to consider taking natural brain enhancers, such as Ginkgo biloba.

Get regular exercises. There is a common misconception that college athletes are “dumb jocks”. Take note, however, that exercise, sports and other strenuous activities greatly improves blood flow to all parts of the body including your brain. The only reason why there are stereotyped “dumb jocks” is because they don’t know how to manage their time between studying and training.

Reduce occasions of stress and depression. These mental states can greatly inhibit your ability to learn. Although stress cannot be avoided, make time during the day to perform stress-relieving techniques, such as deep breathing exercises or meditation. One way you can reduce depression is by consuming less processed and refined foods.

Make it a point to take a break. You are certainly not required to study 24/7. Short breaks of 5 to 15 minutes will help to relax your mind. You might also want to consider taking a “thinking nap”. In this technique, while you are napping, your mind is processing the things that you have learned.

Learn more great tips on how to maintain good health while studying in college today!

If you want to ensure a bright future ahead of you in the career of your choice, you should not just be content with getting passing grades in college. You should make the effort to make higher than average grades. An excellent Grade Point Average (GPA) is the gauge by which potential employers determine which applicants are suited for their companies.

Students who are about to enter college and who are already dreading the amount of studying that will be involved should take note of the following tips on how to get good grades in college.

Do Not Skip Class

Once you enter a college class for the first time, you will observe that your professors are not as strict as your teachers in Grade School or High School. Some don’t even take attendance. If you want to get the most out of your college education, you should always attend your classes. Unless you are sick, it is never advisable to skip even a single class. Always remember that a large part of exam questions in midterm and finals are obtained from the lectures, with a smaller percentage from the assigned text books.

Note Taking is a Skill

Make it a point to take good notes while in class. You don’t need to take down everything that your professor says, but be sure that you jot all the important points that he or she has stressed. Copy the diagrams and charts that he or she has made on the blackboard. If your professor made PowerPoint presentations, you may consider approaching him or her and ask if you could copy it on your flash drive for future review.

Time Management

The key to getting good grades in college is by knowing how to manage your time wisely. For this reason, it is highly advisable that you purchase a journal or a diary to keep track of your daily activities. Aside from noting down your class schedule, determine specific time periods during the day wherein you can review and study your notes and textbooks and do your homework. Psychology studies on learning have shown that studying is more effective during the daytime when your mind is more alert. Evenings are best reserved for quick reviews and reading of assignments for the next day.

A lot of people will probably advise you to keep socializing to a minimum while in college. However, it is not advisable that you don’t get any rest or free time at all. When you have free hours in your schedule and you have finished your homework and reviewed previous lessons, go out and relax with friends. An exhausted mind needs to be refreshed and what better way to do it than to do activities that you love.

Always have a positive attitude when it comes to studying in college. If you don’t do well in one exam, don’t be disheartened. Study harder, particularly focusing on the points that you don’t understand. You may even consider talking to your professor so that he or she can explain the parts that you don’t fully understand better.

Learn more useful tips on getting good grades in college today!

No college student would want to fail in their exams. As much as possible, they desire to get higher grades, and not just a passing mark. Studying Tips for College: Avoiding Distractions – Check it out! However, when there is too much to study, the mind will ultimately get tired and feel bored.

As a result, the greater is the chance of getting distracted very easily. Some would even find themselves staring at the wall for long minutes instead of studying.

If you want to keep your mind on your studies, here are some useful tips to help you in avoiding those nasty distractions.

Look for Peaceful Place to Study

First of all, find a place where you can study comfortably and in peace. Some students prefer to study in their bedroom right in their own home, although it is best to do so at your desk and not on your bed, where you are likely to fall asleep. An excellent place to study is the library. You can even go so far as to reserve a study room for yourself.

Prepare, Never Cram

Secondly, never cram. The more information you need to stuff into your brain, the more likely it will be to get distracted. Instead, study and review your notes in between periods. After school, when you return home or go to your dorm room, do your homework, read the chapter assignments for the next day and do one final review of your notes.

Studying on a regular basis will help you retain information and lessen your chances for distraction when you study for a test. To make it more convenient, you can make a timetable or schedule for study or review so that you will manage your day more efficiently.

Clean Your Desk with Unnecessary Things

Next, when you are going to study, remove anything and everything on your desk that will distract you. Lock your iPod, cellphone and the photo of your boyfriend in your drawer. Move the TV into your parents’ room. If you need to use the Internet for research, you can keep your computer open. However, if you cannot resist those social networking sites, check them out first before you study. Then, shut off your computer.

Do not study for long periods of time. Make sure that you take 10 to 15 minute breaks every hour. This will help you maintain your concentration level. If you are very tired, you may take a short nap. Set your alarm to wake you up after 30 minutes, so you can study again.

Never eat heavy meals before studying. A full stomach can make you feel lethargic and sleepy. It is advisable to eat 5 to 6 smaller meals throughout your day. If you are feeling hungry while you are studying, opt for healthy fruits and snacks. Drink a lot of water to refresh you.

Never force yourself to study when you feel sluggish. You will definitely not retain anything inside your head. Also, it is not advisable to do an all-nighter. To keep your mind fresh for college the following day, set a fixed time for when you sleep at night.

Learn more helpful tips on how to avoid distractions while studying for college today!

Every student would want to know how to study better in college. The desire for better study habits is understandable. By having good grades in college, one would have better chances of getting their dream job that pays big bucks, which help ensure success and financial security in the future.

However, even psychologists and education experts agree that the “how to study better tips” that you read in magazines and online will not be effective if the student does not make the effort to develop the necessary study skills and literally make them a habit. This is particularly true for the specific factors related to the enhancement of memory and learning.

The five major factors in learning and memory enhancement are the following…

1. Study Time = which involves how much time you allot for studying (this does not include class and homework times) and how you use said time
2. Study Place = which involves your chosen location for studying and at what time
3. The Input of Knowledge in Short-Term Memory = which involves how you enter what you have learned in short-term memory
4. The Storage of Knowledge in Long-Term Memory = which involves saving the knowledge that you have inputted into your short-term memory to your long-term memory
5. Knowledge Retrieval = getting the knowledge out of your memory, especially during tests.
7. Each of these factors will be discussed below.

 Study Time

The main key to learning how to study better in college lies in allotting sufficient study time (also known as “preparation time”) every day. In studies on how to study better for tests that was conducted on medical students, the participants have reported increased efficiency when they set regular study time periods in their daily college routine.

These study periods are usually 30 minutes to 1 hour in duration, depending upon the time available between classes. Why so short? It has been found that longer study times will result in dwindling concentration. So, even if a student is diligent enough to read his or her textbooks for 3 to 4 hours in the evening after class, he/she will get average or even poor grades.

One psychology study gave this tip on improving concentration. While you are studying, carefully observe when you read the point that what you are reading in your textbook is no longer registering inside your head. It can also be that you are having difficulty in paying attention and you are growing more and more distracted. In these cases, you will need to read the study material faster. This is similar to driving at a faster speed. The faster you read, the more concentrated you become.

Students who have difficulties in comprehending study material at a faster reading rate can improve significantly if they take speed reading classes.

 Study Place

It has long been a given that the library is the best study place on campus because of its many books and its overall quiet environment. Recent studies by psychologists and education experts have shown that simply sticking to studying in the library may not be as effective as everyone thought. The better strategy would be to alternate study locations.

This is largely due to how human cognition works. A student is more likely to remember information he or she has learned if the memory is emphasized by the place where he/she studied, as well as by his/her mood.

For example, students who are having problems with their Biology classes can choose to study in the campus park surrounded by nature or in the Bio lab, with its many bottled specimens.

Studies have also shown that students can learn how to study better and faster for tests if they study in a location that is very similar to the exam room. Days prior to an exam, you might want to consider taking your textbooks and notebooks to a lecture room where tests are usually given.

As mentioned earlier, mood has an effect on knowledge retention as well. If you are not in a good mood, studying will prove difficult. In the same vein, if the study material is unpleasant, such as terrible moments in history, the less likely you would want to remember the details about them. In these cases, it is advisable that you study in a location that will put you in the mood for learning.

 Inputting Knowledge in Short-Term Memory

For those who love to cram, you will probably be shocked to learn that you can only remember around 5 to 9 items/facts at a time. If you don’t reinforce what you learn days prior to a test, whatever is in your short-term memory will only stay there for 15 to 20 seconds. It is not surprising, therefore, that students who cram will their minds becoming a total blank during the test.

To make short-term memory work for you, you will need to practice a technique known as “chunking”. Here, you chunk related facts together into clusters that are easy for you to remember. It is beyond the scope of this article to discuss “chunking” in detail, but there are many resources that provide tutorials on this technique.

 Storing Knowledge in Long-Term Memory

Nothing can be more important to a college student than to be able to remember everything that they have learned, especially in time for Finals. Strategies for encoding knowledge are particularly critical because they need to be stored in the mind properly, so that they can easily be retrieved when needed.

One good example is by “overlearning”. Here, you simply read and then memorize basic concepts and skills until you have everything down pat. This is technique that you used in Elementary School when memorizing the multiplication tables. Another technique is “elaboration”, wherein you reorganize any new information that is relatable to facts that are already stored in your memory.

Check online resources for other excellent techniques, such as Mnemonics, the Peg Word Method and the Loci Method.

 Retrieving Knowledge

If knowledge has been encoded properly inside your memory through regular reading and reviewing at the right times and places, knowledge retrieval will be very easy, especially during tests.

All tests and examinations have been designed to help the student recall information learned. You will notice that the main bulk of exams are Multiple Choice, Matching Type or True or False questions. These test sections provide the student with cues to make recall easier. Fill In The Blank, Enumeration and Essay questions are the more difficult questions to answer because they don’t have cues. However, the questions in the previous, easier sections should enable you to retrieve the facts that are needed to answer the harder test parts. The cues are all there; you just need to dig into your memory a little deeper.

Take the opportunity to learn the various education and study strategies. By learning these strategies, you will know how to study better in college.

One of the most important skills that you will need to develop when studying in college is taking notes. Taking notes in a college is a lot different than when you were in Elementary School and High School. The subject matter is now more complicated and there are more facts that you will need to remember. In fact, some professors are notorious for squeezing so much study material in a single lecture hour, so that it is virtually impossible to catch the vital facts that he or she is teaching.

Education experts have put forth three methods by which you can efficiently take notes in class. You can select a note-taking method that is best for you or you can choose a specific method that is appropriate for certain subjects.

Let us take a look at these three effective note-taking methods.

The Outlining Method

The outlining method is the technique that is most commonly used by students. As its name denotes, it would require creating an outline so that the facts that have been presented in the lecture will be jotted down in your notes in an organized manner. To do the outlining method, have the major topics written on the far left of your notebook page. As specific points are raised, jot them down in your notebook in order of importance a little bit to the right and label them as “A”, “B”, “C’, etc. If there are sub-points made, note them down under the specific topic and label them as “1″, “2″, “3″, etc. Additional points under the numbered sub-topics will be labeled as “a”, “b”, “c”, etc. If you proceed in this manner, you will have well-organized notes with the facts clearly delineated. You can even create useful mnemonics with this method once the facts are clear to you.

The Cornell Method

Many education experts advocate the use of the Cornell Method for note-taking. It will give the student comprehensive, precise and organized notes without the need of constant rewriting. To do the Cornell method, draw a 2 1/2-inch margin on the left side of your note book so that you will have a larger space on the right side. While listening to a lecture, jot down the notes in the large space. If your professor emphasized some facts, put a cue in the left space. If your professor moves to another topic, leave some extra spaces after the notes you have made or you can start on a new page. At the end of the lecture, you will find that you have precise notes with cues on vital points. The extra space is for you jot down additional information on the subject matter that you have read in your textbook or other resource. To review your notes, cover the right side of your notebook page and recall what you have learned with the use of the cues on the left side.

The Mapping Method

The Mapping Method is more of a graphical style of jotting down notes. Here, you use charts and diagrams to help you visualize the important points raised in the lecture. Although a bit more complicated than the Outlining and Cornell Methods, the Mapping Method is more effective because you can them in speedy lectures and it does not require you to think too much.

Learn other effective methods for note-taking today!