Making Good Notes for Religious Studies |
Taking Notes
Having good class notes is vitally important, and it is essential that you learn to take notes effectively. This involves the following stages:
Listen
Teachers will not dictate notes (except, perhaps, for brief summaries and quotations - which they will probably write on the board anyway). Do not even try to write down everything that the teacher says. The first stage is to listen and to ensure you understand what is said.
Most teachers deliver information in a broadly similar way, in the following stages:
 | Introduce the topic |
| Outline the main points |
| Explain the main points in more detail (often with examples where relevant) |
| Explain them again slightly differently to ensure everyone has understood |
| Summarise |
| Ask if there are any questions. |
This is not always the pattern (different subject matter dictates different approaches), and most teachers have their own style of delivery which you will learn to get used to; but much of the straight classroom delivery of information that you will receive will tend to follow this format. It will help if you can recognise the pattern.
Understand
Do not attempt to make any notes until you are sure you have understood the topic. If you do, they are very unlikely to make much sense. If you do not understand, you must ask. Remember that, contrary to popular opinion, it is the best students who ask most questions. You are not going to look foolish for not understanding (unless the reason for this was that you were not listening while the explanation was being given!); you will look silly if allow a topic to be concluded before you understand it.
Record
Hopefully by the time the teacher is summarising, you have grasped the main points and any essential details, and can quickly record them in your notes. Your teacher will give you time for this, but will not wait forever, so you must learn to make notes quickly. At first this may be difficult, but your skill in doing this will increase with time.
If you are not given sufficient time to make good, clear notes for yourself, feel free to ask your teacher to wait. However, you must not assume that you should necessarily be able to make notes in their final form during the lessons; you may be better off recording key words and phrases under topic headings, together with examples and relevant quotations, and writing them up into coherent notes later.
Your notes must be legible (to you), and clear. Find your own method of making effective notes. You will probably need to make use of headings and subheadings to make your information visually accessible. Signs and abbreviations are helpful (but it's best to stick to official ones). Wide margins, or only writing on one side of the paper can be advisable in that it gives you space for later comments and additions. Remember that your notes are an on-going process, and should be regularly up-dated and improved.
Updating your notes
Much has already been said about the crucial nature of your notes. Your notes will be the main source from which you will be revising. They should therefore be constantly added to as you find out more information, and as your understanding matures. You may need to rewrite whole sections, but usually insertions and marginal notes will suffice. You should also file your returned essays in the appropriate section, with your teacher's comments and your own amendments.
It does not matter what particular system you use for your notes, provided it allows the flexibility you require. Some like file cards; this system is expensive, but it is flexible, and individual cards are easy to carry about for revision. Some like to keep their notes on a computer; this is flexible, but not portable - and usually means writing out all your classroom notes into final form on the computer (which may have advantages but which is probably unnecessary). Whatever you decide, remember that what you are looking for is the most effective data storage and retrieval system for your individual needs.
It is also a good idea to keep an exercise book with key definitions in so that you can build up a subject specific dictionary.
Recalling the Information
Before your End of Year examination and before your final external A or A/S Level you will need to organise for yourself a programme of revision. Separate help will be given on this.
But throughout your course you should read through and recall the information in your notes regularly - irrespective of tests. This will enhance your understanding, and make your revision that much easier. It is a good plan to look through your notes, clearly rehearsing to yourself the main points, at the end of each week, and at the end of each month. Not only will this familiarise you with what you have just studied and help you to remember it, but it will also help you understand the work as you see how the various sections fit together into a coherent whole.
It is a tragic error to think that once a topic has been finished in class you do not have to think about it until the examination. You should spend at least as much time recalling your information as you do collecting and recording it.
When the School advises you to spend five hours a week of your own time working on each A Level subject it is not joking, and now you know what you are expected to do!