Notes

Probably the most important thing when it comes to staying organised at University - how to take notes, how to label notes, how to use them etc.

My top tips for notes;

1. ALWAYS write the course code and the date at the top of the page, of every page, every single one. This is so useful in terms of organisation, you don't need much more than that. For me I write;
Course code, topic/section, lecturer, lecture number, date for example
PHAR1001: Local Anaesthetics, Smart, L4    17.10.13
or CHEM1603: Part B, McMillan, L7     23.10.13
One of the easiest things to do with a piece of paper is to misplace it, lose it, or put it in a random place and then find it again. You look at the content and you have no idea where you lost it from, what lecture it came from, when it was (was it this year? last year?), you have no idea where it belongs but if you label your notes then you will always be able to know whats missing or where it goes.

2. PAGE NUMBER - on every page in a lecture I write the number in the top right hand corner. Just a simple 1 or 2, by that I mean 2 would be the second sheet of paper rather than the 2nd side of 1 piece of A4.

3. If the lecturer is going too fast and you miss something, skip it. Don't bother trying to write it down and thus miss the next part of the lecture, just put an arrow in the margin indicating that you need to finish this section of notes, leave enough space and then move on to the next part.

4. Have an indication of important information. For me, I draw a star by anything the lecturer says is important, e.g. when a lecturer says "this would make really good exam material" bam, a star gets drawn next to it. Its easy to look through your notes and know whats really important if you indicate it when you first write about it.

5. If you can - keep an eye on what number slide the lecturer is on, to go with number 3 its useful to know the slide number. Most power points are put up on some sort of platform for you to access if you missed the lecture (if they're put up before its useful to read through them or print them out).

6. Mix up the page a bit. You don't have to write in an essay format, mix up the page, use columns, circle information, put info in a box, draw diagrams, use arrows, add colour, draw a border around sections, split the page up into strange shapes, make it interesting for yourself. Use bullet points or arrows to show the flow of an argument. Split long sentences into key words, the last thing you want is for your notes to look like a textbook because how many of us love reading textbooks with no colour, pictures or anything remotely interesting?

Those are my top tips for now, hopefully something slightly different to what you've been taught already (theres no point repeating something you probably already know).