4 Powerful Ways to Remember Everything Your Teacher Says

by Dr Marc R. Dussault

As a student, I can almost bet at one time or another you have had the experience of taking reams of notes, only to find you’ve left something important out or simply cannot find it in your notes later. Fortunately for you, there are some helpful tips in this article to help you remember everything your teacher says. Read on for some techniques sure to increase your ability to absorb and recall massive amounts of information, easily and effortlessly.

Use Colored Pencils and Pens

Have a look at some notes you’ve taken in class. What is the common element in all of your notes? It’s the color of your notes - no doubt all taken down in pencil or standard black / blue pen. When you’ve got this page after page , it’s hard to scan your notes for the important points. Rather than always taking you notes like this, try colored pencils and different colored inks. If you make a habit of this, you’ll find your notes MUCH easier to refer back to.

The majority of people have an easier time locating, learning and recalling information when they have visual cues. Using varied colors in your notes gives you a visual cue which can help you remember or at least find important facts in your notes. Experiment with these - some people find some colors more helpful than others. Different colors for different kinds of notes can also be useful.

Personally, I like to do most of my notes in black, with corrections in red when I need to do them. The red contrasts with the black ink, making these corrections easy to spot.

Underline and Accentuate Important Items

When you take notes it is vital to underline or otherwise draw attention to important items. Underlining, circling, drawing boxes or arrows all work to draw the eye toward especially important facts in your notes. Just don’t overuse these or it will be hard to tell what’s important and what’s not.

Draw Figures, Charts, and Graphs

Charts, drawings and diagrams make things like timelines and relationships (which are very difficult to get across in writing) readily understood. Using different colors for your text in diagrams, shading and the like will make these items even easier to follow.

Use Oversized Paper

Large paper just seems to work better for some reason. You can buy paper in boxes of 5,000 continuous sheets for a little under $30. This can last for years and works great for large diagrams since they can be folded easily. Consider purchasing some of this paper for your note taking.

There are one or two different things I do with these large sheets. Either I get all the main points of a course on one sheet or I section each page into a subject, topic or idea. It really just depends on the course that is being taken. Regardless, they are both great ways to get the proper information you need.

As an example, not long ago I took a course where I placed my notes for each lecture on a single page. This allowed me to condense my notes for 17 chapters of textbooks and 30 articles into a dozen or so pages. It’s a lot simpler to read through a dozen pages than a thousand. This cuts down many hours of pre-test revision to less than one.

Making these pages of notes can even be fun. When you do it this way, you can almost feel it sticking in your mind. Try it for yourself - you’ll see your confidence in classes increase rapidly. If you follow the ideas laid out in this article, you’ll find your academic success on the rise.

About the Author:

Author Dr Marc R. Dussault can show you how to easily improve your school grades using proven “speed study” methods that anyone can learn. Visit the “Get Better Grades” web site for more great tips on speed learning.