Chapter 9: Making the Most of Class Time by Mastering Note-taking and Engagement

In Chapter 8, we examined the importance of fiercely protecting your time schedule so that you have the time to consistently make progress towards your academic success. As a college student, your classes serve as the backbone of your entire academic experience. These 50 to 75 minutes or longer blocks are incredible opportunities to absorb important and valuable knowledge from subject matter experts. But like your need to consistently prioritize your schedule, you must have an intentional and effective strategy for using that class time effectively. If you are not actively engaged during the class session, a huge opportunity for learning the material may be lost.

This chapter examines effective strategies for being fully engaged and purposeful during every class section. We’ll cover tips for maximizing your focus and attention, as well as note-taking systems for capturing concepts in a way that actually works.

The Power of Intentional Class Presence
Think about it: you’re paying thousands of dollars for the privilege of being taught by highly educated professionals that are providing you with information needed to achieve your goals. You have to choose how you’re going to approach this investment. Every lecture and discussion you’re part of is an investment in your future. Much like responsible savings or investment strategies are designed to protect your money and allow it to grow, wasting class time through inattention (such as checking in on social media or browsing the Internet) or taking sloppy notes essentially means that instead of investing that hard-earned money, you are spending it on intangibles that may be worthless in the future.

Therefore, showing up to each class ready to fully engage creates a mindset primed for absorbing the important information and explanations. Like a sponge, you’ll be able to synthesize core concepts as they’re presented, mentally connect ideas to a deeper understanding, identify areas that you need to invest additional time researching or studying, or ask insightful questions to strengthen your knowledge. When you commit to being intentionally present, you’re getting your maximum return on investment from each class session.

A Successful Class Session Begins Before You Arrive
To make the most effective use of your class time, it is important to prepare ahead of time. The night before the class it is good to review the syllabus to see what topics will be covered that day. It may be a topic that you’re familiar with—perhaps you took a similar course in high school—but this does not mean that you know everything there is to know about that topic. Your college courses are going to go deeper into the concepts that you may have taken in an AP or honors course previously. It is wonderful if you have prior knowledge of the topic, but be very careful not to become overconfident because the expectations for your understanding of the material and your application of the information will get progressively more rigorous as you go through your college classes.

Review the textbook or assigned readings to get an introduction to the topic. This is important because for many people, they need to be presented with or consider new information multiple times before the concepts begin to click into place. If you have reviewed the information ahead of time, perhaps even scanning the material, you will be better prepared for class because the professor will then be building upon your brief introduction. Don’t feel as if you need to understand everything ahead of class; identifying areas that seem challenging will help you to identify parts of the lecture that are especially important to support your learning.

Many professors provide an outline or a copy of their slides ahead of time. If so, this is a valuable resource both to prepare you for class ahead of time as well as a tool for taking notes. Decide if you want to print them out so that you can write notes onto them, or if you would prefer to save them on your tablet or computer and record your notes digitally. Using these resources will help you organize your notes while you’re taking them so that they’re a more effective resource for studying.

Come prepared to take notes. Unlike high school, do not expect your professor to have extra pens or pencils available. If you are writing out your notes, make sure you have a notebook or paper in a binder so that all of your notes for that class are organized in one place and are not lost as the semester progresses. If you are going to be taking your notes digitally, make sure your device is fully charged and carry a charger with you so that you can recharge your device on days when you have several classes.

Decide if you’re the type of person that would gain value from hearing the lecture a second time. While some professors may record their lectures and make them available to students, others may be receptive to you audio recording their lecture. But make sure you receive permission from the instructor ahead of time before making any recordings.

Immediately prior to class, you may want to adopt a short pre-class routine that will get you focused and ready to learn:

• Review your notes or readings from the last session.
• Check to see if you have any specific questions you want answered.
• Try to spend 2 to 3 minutes in quiet reflection, practicing deep breathing exercises to help clear your mind of distraction and prepare you to learn.
• Finally, some people find that repeating a mantra about being intentionally present and reminding themselves of how this class session will help them achieve their short-term goals helps to motivate and focus them for the class.
• Determine if there are other pre-class activities that will help you be better focused during the class. A big portion of this would be getting enough sleep the night before, but if you find yourself losing your attention because you’re hungry, grab a quick snack before class.
  Occasionally, your classes may be back-to-back and your routines will need to be adjusted to reflect that. To ensure you are at your best for each academic day, pack the snacks and materials you may need. Additionally, you may have to block out time at the start of the day to review notes.

During class
Maximizing Your Focus and Engagement
Staying focused and engaged for an entire 50 to 75 minute or longer lecture is no easy task, but here are some tips for making it happen:

1. Attend every single class, no exceptions.
2. Sit towards the front and center of the room. If necessary, you may need to set away from friends or other students that may serve as a distraction.
3. Avoid multitasking at all costs. Chances are the moment that you’re responding to that text is the same time your professor provides a key insight that is important to understanding the information.
4. Participate in the class by asking questions or contributing to discussions.
   
   The Three Phase Note-taking System
   Effective note-taking requires much more than just mindlessly transcribing every word that the professor says. If that was effective, court stenographers would become lawyers after a few years. You need a purposeful system for capturing important concepts in a way that supports your unique learning style. One way to approach this is using the three phase note-taking system for all of your classes:
   
   Phase 1: Capture
   During the lecture, your sole focus should be on capturing the information through a combination of handwritten notes or diagrams, digital notes or outlines, and audio recording (with permission). Don’t worry about perfection or organizing the information yet; just get as much of the core concepts and key points down as you can.
   
   The Cornell Note-taking System:
   The Cornell notes system was developed in the 1950s by an education professor at Cornell University. This method could be used while you are taking your notes or as you’re organizing your notes after class. The system divides the page into a narrow column on the left, a broader column on the right, and a row at the bottom of the page with space for several lines of text.
   
   The majority of the notes you collect during class go in the broad column to the right. In the column to the left, you identify key points that are essential to help you study later or questions you have about the material. The goal of these two columns is that you can cover the broad column of raw notes on the right, look at the key points in the left column, and quiz yourself to remember the information that is covered. Another advantage to this system is that if you’re flipping through your notes to try to find a specific point, the key points on the left will help you identify where your more detailed notes are located.
   
   Finally, at the bottom of the page is a row of summaries in which you try to provide how the points covered in this section of class fit together. This is a skill that takes time to learn and it may need to be completed in phase 2 when you organize your notes.
   
   Phase 2: Organize
   Within 24 hours after the lecture, organize and synthesize your raw captured notes into a cohesive, structured format optimized for your learning style. Many times when you are capturing your notes, you will have misspelled words, missing concepts, or jumbled ideas. It is easy to copy your notes verbatim, but in general mindlessly copying your notes from one page to another is not an effective way to learn the material. If you can think about the information as you’re working through it and summarize it, it demonstrates that you are learning the material and identifying the main points.
   
   Mind Maps or Diagrams:
   If you are studying a topic in which it’s important to understand the relationship between different parts, you can create a visual summary of your notes by putting key ideas at the center of the page and then branching off to sub-ideas and further details. These visual diagrams will help you then understand how the topics are related to one another.
   
   Bulleted Outlines and Summaries:
   Sometimes the information you are learning is better described in organized lists. If you create bulleted outlines, you will be revising your notes into a format where, similar to the mind maps and diagrams, you are nesting the information from broad topics to more and more specific information. It is also helpful, as in the Cornell note-taking system, to include summaries to explain the main topics you are working with.
   
   Digital Study Guides or Flashcards:
   For information that is based primarily on memorization of key points or definitions, you can create physical flashcards or use digital tools to prompt you with the question that you can then consider and then check for the correct answer.
   
   The most important thing in organizing your notes in Phase 2 is that you not simply copy directly what you captured during your class. Instead, you want to create a set of tools that can be helpful in studying the information by organizing the lecture materials in a way that supports your learning style.
   
   Phase 3: Review
   As part of your scheduled priority study sessions, dedicate some time to reviewing your notes. Read through your organized notes and, if necessary, reorganize and summarize them as your understanding of the material improves. Cover up key points and try to recall the concepts that support and explain those points. Explain the ideas out loud to a study partner, friend, pet, or stuffed animal. Quiz yourself using any review materials you created.
   
   Choosing Your Note-taking Style
   There’s no one-size-fits-all or perfect study method. When it comes to choosing the specific note-taking style that works best for you, the key is experimenting early on to find the capture and organization methods that feel most natural and effective for how your brain best processes the information. Consider these strategies:

• Use a two-column system: The right-hand column acts as a high-level outline and summary of key concepts introduced in chronological order. The left-hand column creates space for additional notes, definitions, diagrams, and more specific details. This is similar to the Cornell note-taking system.
• Develop your own shorthand: Abbreviate lengthier terms to save writing time, but if you do so, make sure you write down what the abbreviation stands for. Otherwise, when you review your notes later, you may not remember what it is you meant. For example, in the sciences, the abbreviation “DNA” is much quicker and easier to write than “deoxyribonucleic acid.”
• Focus on comprehending first: Don’t try to transcribe every single word verbatim. Make your initial goal to comprehend and absorb what’s being taught at a conceptual level first. Once you have this level of understanding, you can then go back and add in more specific details from the course readings, interactions with your study partners, or answers from your professor during office hours.
• Ask clarifying questions: If you feel confused or think you’ve missed an important point, never hesitate to respectfully raise your hand and request a clarification during class or attend your professor’s office hours to get additional guidance.
  
  Take-Home Message
  Your in-class time is precious. You’re literally paying to be there and exposed to that knowledge. Having a system for making the most of these opportunities by staying engaged and capturing the information effectively is absolutely crucial from day one of the semester. Get intentional about your approach to class time: show up prepared, focused, and ready to learn. Implement a note-taking system that works for your personal learning style, and most importantly, don’t just take the notes—actively review and revise your notes to reinforce that information consistently. Once you have an effective in-class strategy, you’ll be amazed at how much more you’re able to absorb and retain from lectures and discussions. The path to academic success starts with making your in-class time a true investment in your learning

This excerpt if from the Advanced Reader Copy of The GPA Strategy, scheduled to be published on August 16, 2024.