109
Have you ever noticed how easy it is to learn the words of a song? It’s easier to remember song lyrics than other kinds of information because songs follow a tune, have a beat, and often relate to things in our personal lives. It is easier to remember new information if you can connect it to what you already know.
In your first-year classes, you’ll be listening to and reading material that might seem hard to understand. Beginning on the first day of class, you will be more likely to remember what you hear and read if you try to link it to something you have already learned or experienced.
A very important first step toward success is to prepare before you attend each class session by listening, learning, and remembering the material. Here are some strategies that are simple, yet very important to your success:
Do the assigned reading. Doing the assigned reading before class will help you understand new terms, listen better, and pick out the most important information when taking notes in class. Some instructors assign readings during class; others expect you to follow the syllabus (course outline) to keep up with the assigned readings. As you read, take good notes (more on note taking later in this chapter). In books you have purchased, annotate (add explanatory notes in the margins), highlight, or underline key points. In books you do not own, such as library books, paraphrase the content and then annotate or highlight what you have written.
Pay careful attention to your course syllabus. The syllabus you receive at the start of each course will include the course requirements, your instructor’s expectations, and the course grading breakdown. Instructors expect students to understand and follow the syllabus with few or no reminders. You might find that this is a key difference between college and high school.
Make use of additional materials provided by the instructors. Many instructors post lecture outlines or notes in the course or learning management system (CMS or LMS) before class. Download and print these materials for easy use during class. CMS materials often provide hints about the topics that the instructor considers most important; they also can create an organizational structure for taking notes.
Warm up for class. Review chapter introductions and summaries that refer to related sections in your text, and quickly review your notes from the previous class period. This prepares you to pay attention, understand, and remember.
Get organized. Decide how you want to take notes. If you handwrite your notes, using three-ring binders can help you organize them; punch holes in syllabi and other course handouts, and keep them with class notes. You might want to buy notebook paper with a large left-hand margin so that you can annotate your lecture notes (more on this later in the chapter). You can also download and print blank notebook paper from several free websites or download note-taking apps such as OneNote, Evernote, or Simplenote that can provide you with tools to take or organize your notes on your mobile device.
If you take notes on a laptop or tablet, keep your files organized in separate folders for each of your classes, and make sure that the file name of each document includes the date and topic of the class. See the Tech Tip at the end of this chapter for more information on using your computer or mobile device to take effective notes.