Page 207 - Keys to College Success

talk risk and reward . . .

Risk asking tough questions to be rewarded with new insights. Use the following questions
to inspire discussion with classmates, either in person or online.
■ Every student experiences the frustration of needing to work hard to remember
something that you think is completely unimportant and irrelevant to your life.
How do you handle this, and what is the result? How should you handle it?
■ When you are in class, what percent of your brain is focused on class, and what
percent is distracted and focused elsewhere? If you want the reward of increased
focus, what are you willing to risk to be more focused in the classroom?
CONSIDER THE CASE: How do you respond when, like Chandra, you discover that a
goal presents much more of a challenge than you had expected? Do you forge ahead, do
the minimum, give up? How do the people in your life advise you to proceed—and what
do you think of the advice?

WHAT NOTE-TAKING
systems can you use?

Now that you have gathered some useful note-taking strategies, take a look at
different systems for how to approach note taking. Keep these questions in mind as
you read, so that you begin to think about how you would use specific systems:
■ What class or type of instruction would this system be best suited for? Why?
■ Which system seems most comfortable to me?
■ What system might be most compatible with my learning preferences? Why?

Outlines
Outlines use a standard structure to show how ideas and supporting details relate and
to indicate levels of importance. Formal outlines indicate idea dominance and subordi-
nation with Roman numerals, uppercase and lowercase letters, and numbers. In con-
trast, informal outlines show the same associations but replace the formality with a
system of consistent indenting and dashes. Key 7.2 shows how the structure of an
informal outline helps a student take notes on the topic of tropical rain forests.
From time to time, an instructor may provide guided notes—an outline on the
board, a projected PowerPoint, or on a handout—at the beginning of class. Guided
notes are general and minimal, and they require that you fill in the details during
the lecture.

Cornell T-Note System

The Cornell note-taking system, also known as the T-note system, consists of three
sections you create before class on paper and fill in during class time. Picture an
upside-down letter T as you follow these directions: 1

■ Set up your paper by picturing an upside-down letter T. Create the cue column by
drawing a vertical line about 2.5 inches from the left side of the paper. End the line
about 2 inches from the bottom of the sheet. Create the summary area by drawing
a horizontal line that spans the entire paper about 2 inches from the bottom of the
page. Notes, the largest section, is to the right of the cue column.

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