Effective Studying from Textbooks

[phrygian]

When taking notes out of a book I sometimes feel like I am wasting too much time mindlessly copying ideas and equations down and that this is slowing down my learning speed. Does anyone have any general advice on how to study out of a textbook and what should and should not be copied by hand?

Thanks for the help

 

[fss]

Why copy something out of the book? It's already written down...

In the larger picture, note taking seems to be personal preference. I didn't take notes in undergrad or grad school because after a semester I realized I never looked at them. I did just fine without.

 

[General_Sax]

I don't take notes either, but it does help some people learn. If you're not getting anything out of notetaking though, don't do it.

 

[Chunkysalsa]

I stopped taking notes back in high school when I realized that I never read them. Not to mention that even if I could read them they are in such bad handwriting that I can't read them if I wanted to.

Glad other people feel the same way I do. I always feel like the idiot in class who sits there with an empty desk, though when test scores coming running around the tables sure do flip a lot.

 

[hadsed]

I haven't yet been in a class where the instructor is teaching something that I can't find a million other resources to help me with incase I'm stuck doing homework or studying or something. That will probably change in the future, but for now I try to take in as much as I can in lecture. Plus my handwriting sucks.

 

[twofish-quant]

When taking notes out of a book I sometimes feel like I am wasting too much time mindlessly copying ideas and equations down and that this is slowing down my learning speed. Does anyone have any general advice on how to study out of a textbook and what should and should not be copied by hand?

A lot will depend on how you study, and you'll find that out by trial and error.

I've never taken notes out of a textbook. I do make a lot of annotations in the margins. Also I read best when I skim the book so that I see what the topics are.

I always take notes in lectures. Curiously, I almost never read the notes afterwards. Taking notes in class is a useful because it helps me absorb the material, and also it keeps my mind from wandering. One other thing that taking notes does is to keep me awake if I'm tired. Looking back at my old lecture notes, they are funny because you can see the places where I'm starting to doze off.

 

[brushman]

I usually don't take notes in my classes, but I'd say 90% of my classmates do.

I think taking notes actually distracts me. I do better when I just focus on what the prof is saying rather then trying to write it down. I guess it depends on personal preference.

I figure I can find all the info I need from alternative resources.

I've never taken notes out of a textbook. If you're just mindlessly writing it all down, it seems pointless. Just read through and work the examples making sure you understand it. Maybe try highlighting text and writing in the margins instead of actually taking separate notes.

 

[hadsed]

I always take notes in lectures. Curiously, I almost never read the notes afterwards. Taking notes in class is a useful because it helps me absorb the material, and also it keeps my mind from wandering. One other thing that taking notes does is to keep me awake if I'm tired. Looking back at my old lecture notes, they are funny because you can see the places where I'm starting to doze off.

This is a good idea. I find myself getting lost in imagination-land and I 'wake up' to find that I missed an entire blackboard's worth of material.

 

[Andy Resnick]

When taking notes out of a book I sometimes feel like I am wasting too much time mindlessly copying ideas and equations down and that this is slowing down my learning speed. Does anyone have any general advice on how to study out of a textbook and what should and should not be copied by hand?

I'm the same as Twofish-quant: I always take lecture notes, but never read them after (same for meetings). I guess the act of concentrating on writing the notes is sufficient to get the material to penetrate.

I don't take notes out of books/papers, but I do underline/annotate sections that I want to pay more attention to, or don't understand.

 

[Tom83B]

I sometimes do take notes even when I learn from textbook. I tend to remember it better.

 

[deluks917]

I always take tons of notes to the point of rewriting (in my words) the textbook. I can never understand just by reading. I often do look at my notes.

edit: I don't really rewrite the book but I sort of try to make an outline of the important stuff. All the Theorems and proofs do get written down but I put my own short explanations.

 

[Ryker]

I've never copied stuff from a textbook before. When there was a lot of memorizing to do, I'd use markers, but otherwise I just gloss stuff here and there with a pencil. I'm a slow reader, so just going through the book takes too much time as it is, and I can't imagine how I'd manage writing out stuff, as well.

 

[QuarkCharmer]

I'll take notes while listening to a lecture, but more or less only so that I can later convert them into a study-guide style.

 

[clope023]

I usually don't take notes in my classes, but I'd say 90% of my classmates do.

I think taking notes actually distracts me. I do better when I just focus on what the prof is saying rather then trying to write it down. I guess it depends on personal preference.

Same, I find frantically trying to copy down everything the professor is writing/saying just made me copy random words and symbols without realizing what they meant, now for the most part I just listen in class and I take in more information that way because I'm actually following what the professor is saying.