How To Take Better Notes In Class As a Computer Science Student

When I was a Computer Science undergrad in college, I learned the importance of taking high-quality notes when taking class lectures. These are very valuable when it comes to preparing for your next Computer Science test. Moreover, I learned that taking outstanding notes will help you study more efficiently, not only that, save time when studying for your course. Thus, preparing yourself better for the test and getting a higher grade.

Thus, today I am going to share the approach I used as an undergraduate student that helped me graduate get excellent grades, hence, graduating with one of the highest GPA’s in my class. This way, you can do it too. Also, I will share some tips you can use to get the most of the notes you take in class. Thus, making the process of preparing and studying for your next Computer Science course easier for you.

So, let’s get started.

Takes your notes by hand

In my experience, taking notes by hand helps in a myriad of ways. First, by taking notes by hand, I am actively focusing on what the professor is saying, spotting the essential concepts he is talking about and any extra tip he says about the test. Consequently, I am more engaged in the class and I make the most out of the time I invest by going to the lecture. Another thing I have noticed that has benefited me from taking notes by hand is that I remember the information better, also, when I tested myself, I saw that I knew the answer, or I just had to review some of the details, but I remembered the overall fundamental idea of the concept.

On the other hand, as I did some research on this topic, I came across that there have been studies about the benefits of taking notes by hand. Here’s an article you can read if you are interested in finding out more about this topic.

Focus on the key ideas

A common mistake I did as a student was to write down everything the professor said. Which in the long run, I had cluttered and organized notes. So, what I started to do was to look for the key ideas the professor was conveying. After I did this quick scan, I wrote it down. I paid attention for when the professor got deep into the topic, also for when he/she emphasized on a particular idea. My thought was, if the professor spent a lot of time explaining the idea, it must mean that it is coming on the test and it is critical to understand this concept. Which I found out to be true, most of the time when it came to test time.

Write down the fundamental structure (or syntax)

Pay attention to the structure of a topic and syntax, then write it down. This helped me when it came to my programming courses. It helped me in other classes as well, but I saw this more on the courses that touched on computer programming topics. I found out this to be true because of all of the syntaxes these courses touch upon. For instance, when we discussed the “if-else statements” in class, I wrote down the syntax and structure of writing an if-else statement in the programming language we were using in class.

Furthermore, I highlighted the keywords (if and else) by using the color red and wrote down the explanation of how these statements worked. I noticed that this helped me learn faster the concept and remember it in the long-run. Also, when I reviewed the notes and started studying for the test, I found out that I understood, recognized the structure of if-else statements and how they worked on a computer program. Which in the long run, saved me a lot of time studying and I could use this time to study for my other courses.

Organize your notes

Wow, this was another big time saver. Since I took notes for other courses during the semester, many times I spent time looking for the notes of a particular course or lecture. Which hindered my performance when making the most of the time I invested in a study session. I fixed this by having separate notebooks for my courses, also by writing the notes in a structured manner. If the notes were all over the place and not easy to understand, I re-wrote them in a structured and concise way. I know what you may be thinking, that is a lot of work, but believe me, it made the process of preparing for the exam way easier.

Remember, when come exam time, you might feel stressed and overwhelmed because of all the concepts you need to remember. Also, you might feel anxious because you don’t want to miss anything on the test. Don’t worry that is normal; I felt that way too. So, by organizing my notes, I made sure I had an easy to understand and reliable source of information I could use to study when the exam came along. Which helped me feel confident that I knew what was necessary to succeed in the actual test.

Read the notes after the lecture

Another habit I picked up through the years as I completed my bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, was to read and review the notes after the lecture. I tried to this the same day I took the lecture. I know this might be difficult sometimes, at least it was for me, due to the time you have available, other classes and duties you need to get to as a student. A way I tried to do this was to use the breaks between classes I had during the day, to read and review the notes. I just read them and reviewed them. If there was something I did not understand at all, I wrote an asterisk (*) beside it, so I could later address my understanding on the particular idea. I could do this by asking the professor on the next lecture.

This helped me because I could make sure I understood the concept way ahead of time, so when the test came, I did not have to panic I did not understand the idea. So, the earlier you review your notes, the better in my opinion. Consequently, you will have more time to work on learning understanding the concepts you still don’t quite understand. Also, when I started to read the book and study for the test, I noticed that I understood the concept better than I thought, so, I saved time, and I could focus on what I did not understand.

Summary: There you have it, tips and strategies you can use to take better notes for your Computer Science courses in college. This way, you can make the most out of these notes, and the time you invest in preparing for your next Computer Science exam. Hence, getting better grades and increasing your GPA.

If you would like tips on strategies you can use to study for your next Computer Science test, check out this article.

I hope this helps!

Let me know if these tips did help you out, by leaving a comment on this post.

Also, comment down below any techniques you use to take notes in class or used to if you already graduated. I would like to know. Also, it might help other students as well.

As always, don’t forget to follow me, so you don’t miss a story.

Note: You can use these tips and strategies for other college courses. I am sharing from the perspective of my college major, which was Computer Science.

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Originally published at yadielcabrera.com on November 11, 2018.