Note Taking, Test Preparation. Quiz Let’s start with a 9-minute test Based on Grade 10 math...
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Transcript of Note Taking, Test Preparation. Quiz Let’s start with a 9-minute test Based on Grade 10 math...
Taking Notes from Texts and Lectures
A. Lectures and Note-TakingB. General PrinciplesC. Note-Taking SystemsD. New Technology
A. Lectures and Note-TakingB. General PrinciplesC. Note-Taking SystemsD. New Technology
Purpose of Lectures
• immediate event: lectures progress in real time and demand mental and physical participation.
• stimulate FOCUS
Goals of Note-Taking
• capture the essence of your lecture while you simultaneously listen, study, or observe
• note taking serves two functions: learning and external storage (DiVesta & Gray, 1972)
• Learning is the most important
How Notes Work
• require abbreviations, short-cuts, paraphrases, reformatting
• creative, effortful acts• effort = memorability• effort develops from speed
difference between speech and writing
Note Taking & Speed
• effort = memorability• effort created by difference
between speech and writing• Writing speed: 0.2 to 0.3 WPS • Speaking speed: 2 to 3 WPS
Note Taking Effort
• effort of note taking GREATER than that of reading, studying
• Greater even than CHESS!
BUT—Bad Notes Are Bad
• Many students are poor note takers
• typically record less than half of the key ideas presented
Printed Notes?
• pre-printed course packs ensure crucial material is accurate and complete
• allow the student to concentrate on the lecture (reducing multi-tasking) BUT
• reduce the student's role in note production—Problem?
Ideal Lecture Notes
• ideally, work with prepared course
note packages
• annotate, highlight, and mark
them vigorously
Good point!
Note-Taking Principles
1. Get used to incompleteness
• do NOT copy every word: as completeness RISES, comprehension FALLS
• Even worse with a keyboard!
Note-Taking Principles
2. Classify the information.• Listen for “metamessages” as well
as content• Listen to examples; record key
concepts
Focus on Metamessages
• Crucial hints, e.g., “the details of this process are not important at this point”
Focus on Metamessages
• Crucial hint: “I don’t expect you to memorize them all”BUT
• “you should recognize some properties of major groups”
Note-Taking Principles
3. Organize the information.• consider adopting a consistent,
formal note-taking plan• may improve clarity or save time• works with PPT slides or bare
paper . . .
• Print slides in “notes pages” format• Provides space to add your own notes• Remember: The purpose of note-taking
is LEARNING
Summary• Review readings & slides before
lecture• Print slides and leave space to
annotate them• Focus on metamessages• Use slides/notes as tests and
test yourself
If You Know Everything Already . . .
• Extend your knowledge: Develop questions • Test yourself: in REVIEW, everything looks
familiar (“passive review” WEAK!)• Tests provide retrieval practice &
knowledge of performance• Remember: you will not only have to know
the material but retrieve it quickly and accurately
No Printouts?
• Printouts are not always available• Printing requires time & money• What is the best way to take notes
if printouts are not an option?• 3 Principles, 3 Formats
1. Outline System
1. Illustrates the relative value of major points and supporting ideas
a) highly structuredb) effort of forming a coherent outline
makes the material memorable2. Organized appearance also
makes the notes comprehensible3. Drawbacks of outline format:
a) too slow for many situationsb) only useful for lectures with clear
structure
2. Branching &Mind Mapping:
• informal, strongly visual ways of expressing relationships between ideas
• start in the middle of the page with a key idea; draw a radiating line for each subtopic
• indicate connections between ideas with branching lines
Why mindmap?
• Make new connections between ideas
• Fast and easy to create• Memorable (for some)• Fun!
3. Cornell System:
Simple system that 1. Leaves adequate room for later
re-organization2. Creates an automatic quiz
system
Cornell System
Developed--• When?• Where?• Why?
• By?• Now Used?
1949Cornell UTest preparation formatWalter S. Pauk• Most major US law
schools
3-Part System
Phase 1: Before the Lecture• Review previous notes• Prepare paper for current notes
(date, course, name, page numbers)
3-Part System
Phase 2: During the Lecture• record notes on the right-hand side of
the page• capture main points writing quickly• you may NOT have time to re-write• only re-write notes if this is a crucial
study activity for you!• notes should convey the necessary
information the first time you write them.
3-Part System
Phase 3: After the Lecture• jot down key words and phrases
on the left side of the paper• helps organize material• TEST: cover the right side of the
notebook• use key words and phrases as test
questions
“seed tick”
-how ticks find cattle?
-responses: warm/cold?
-why does blood continue to flow in host?
-host questing risky—adaptations?
smells butyric acid in mammalian sweat
One/several batches—1000s!
Releases apyrase (anti-coag.) & kininase (no itch)
Branching/Cornell Approach
Testing as Study
• Every diagram is the basis for a test (reproduce sketch diagrams to self-test)
• highest learning gains from testing; best form of study!
• Testing may actually replace notes—soon
Testing
• Tests enhance learning and improve long-term retention, a phenomenon known as the “testing effect” (Agarwal et al., 2007)
• In a 2006 experiment, subjects predicted they would recall more in the future after repeated studying than after testing
Know Thyself
• They were wrong• testing enhanced long-term
retention better than restudying• monitor and regulate your own
learning—you may surprise yourself
Notes and Textbooks
• Highlighting no substitute for study
• Notes/Testing more memorable• Excellent chapter-end summaries
and questions—use them!
Textbooks
• Start with the questions—then look for the answers
• Use end of chapter summaries as “advance organizers”
• Take notes & test as well as read—passive review is a weak learning strategy
Last Word: New Technology
• Technology claims are usually overstated (e.g., TABLETS!)
• Some new devices look promising• Some do not
York-McMaster Study
• “multitasking on a laptop poses a significant distraction to both users and fellow students and can be detrimental to comprehension of lecture content.” (2013)
“Smart” Pens?
• Livescribe—not that I’m endorsing their product
• Traditional pen with digital enhancement
• Records audio, coordinates with digitized text
New Technology
• Systems are maturing—and some may really be better
• We are on the verge of HUGE changes
• Most of the old principles will still apply!
Tip of the Day
• Avoid changing answers on multiple-choice tests?• Virtually all research on this topic for 70 YEARS
suggests the opposite• Most answer changes are from incorrect to correct,• Why do people believe in this strategy if the data so
strongly refute it?• “counterfactual thinking” created because changing an
answer and making it incorrect leads to more self-recrimination
• Thus, instances of the former are more memorable than instances of the latter (Kruger, Wirtz, & Miller, 2005)
1. Apply Distribution
• prepare throughout the term.• concentrated review: final week• material learned most thoroughly and
efficiently by reviewing at regular intervals over time
• Final days: integration, synthesizing, summarizing, and reinforcing material
• if work is overwhelming, schedule what you can and gradually work in the rest.
2. Use Self-Testing
• “there are no strategies that work all of the time, for all students, in all classes” (Gurung, Weidert, & Jeske, 2010, p. 32)
• “metacognitive strategies such as self-testing” are effective (Gurung et al., p. 32).
3. Anticipate Test Form
• Ways in which a test “goes beyond the learned curriculum”
1. Concepts not covered explicitly in course
2.Question types not used in class
3. Known concepts tested in unfamiliar ways (Rubinstein, 2003)
Question 1
• If x = 0, then both columns = 0• If x is any positive integer, B > A• If x is any negative integer, B > A• If x is a fraction, A > B• Answer: 4 (cannot be determined)
Question 2
• Equation 1 = Equation 2 – 1• 3x + y = x + 2y – 1 (because 16 –
1 = 15)• Subtract one from the other:• 3x – x + y - 2y = -1• 2x – y = -1• -1 < 0 therefore Column B is
greater• Answer: 2
Testbuster
• Have you ever seen questions quite like these before?
• Was the format off-putting?• Did you recognize that the
mathematical concepts were fairly elementary (i.e., Grade 10)?