how to take notes DEPENDING ON THE SUBJECT *study tips from a HARVARD student* | PART 1

Summary

In this educational video, the host, an incoming pharmacy student, shares effective note-taking strategies tailored to various subjects, including chemistry, biology, math, humanities, and business. Emphasizing the importance of adapting to different learning styles, the host provides tips on highlighting, annotating diagrams, condensing information, and using both examples and text to ensure a deep understanding of concepts. The goal is to create a personalized and efficient note system that enhances learning and study.

Takeaways

• 📚 Note-taking is subject-specific and requires adaptation based on the course material.
• 🔬 For chemistry, pre-lecture reading and highlighting key concepts is crucial for understanding complex topics.
• 🧪 In chemistry, creating a fact sheet for quick reference and annotating problems as examples can enhance learning.
• 🌿 Biology notes benefit from annotating diagrams and condensing information for better retention.
• 📈 Math notes should include detailed step-by-step explanations and logical understanding over memorization.
• 📘 Humanities require condensing extensive content into main ideas and supporting details for effective studying.
• 🏛️ Language courses should focus on foundational material, using tables for grammar and vocabulary lists for reference.
• 💼 Business courses combine elements of various subjects, necessitating a blend of note-taking strategies like annotation and condensation.
• ✏️ Writing in words alongside mathematical examples helps in understanding concepts logically rather than just numerically.
• 🖌️ Use of color and personal learning style adaptations are encouraged to make note-taking more effective.
• 📝 Note-taking is about condensing, organizing, and personalizing information for effective learning and review.

Q & A

What is the main focus of the video?

The main focus of the video is to share strategies for effective note-taking in various subjects, tailored to different academic fields such as chemistry, biology, math, humanities, and business.

Why is highlighting important before attending a chemistry lecture according to the speaker?

Highlighting is important because it forces the brain to comprehend the information, giving a rough idea of the main ideas and making the lecture more comprehensible.

What does the speaker suggest for note-taking in chemistry?

The speaker suggests reading through the content and highlighting main ideas before the lecture, annotating during the lecture, and maintaining a fact sheet for quick reference.

How does the speaker handle note-taking for biology?

For biology, the speaker annotates PDFs or slides, emphasizes annotating diagrams, and condenses information to capture the essence of the lecture.

What is the speaker's approach to note-taking in math?

The speaker advises writing everything down from the board, using examples, highlighting key ideas, and explaining concepts with text to ensure a logical understanding of the material.

Why is condensing information crucial for humanities according to the video?

Condensing information is crucial in humanities because these subjects are content-heavy, and it helps to separate relevant from irrelevant information, making notes more manageable and focused.

How should one adapt their note-taking strategies for language courses?

For language courses, one should keep notes simple, focusing on grammar rules in tables, and maintaining a vocabulary list for easy reference and memorization.

What is the speaker's tip for note-taking in business courses?

In business courses, the speaker recommends annotating diagrams and charts, writing every step for numerical subjects, and condensing notes with main ideas and supporting details for content-heavy courses.

Why is it important to adapt note-taking strategies to different subjects?

It is important to adapt note-taking strategies to different subjects because each subject has unique requirements and complexities, and tailoring note-taking methods can enhance understanding and retention of the material.

What does the speaker suggest for students who are not using course notes?

If students are not using course notes, the speaker suggests they can replace the reference with their textbook or the slides provided by their professor.

How does the speaker feel about using an iPad for note-taking?

The speaker personally prefers not to use an iPad for note-taking due to the texture of the stylus on the screen and the unappealing appearance of their writing, but acknowledges that it works well for others.

Outlines

00:00

📚 Customized Note-Taking Strategies

The speaker, an incoming pharmacy student, emphasizes the importance of adapting note-taking methods to different subjects. They share their personal strategies for taking notes in university, applicable to high school students as well. The speaker introduces their approach to note-taking, starting with chemistry, where they highlight main ideas before lectures to grasp complex topics better. They also discuss the use of fact sheets and problem-solving as part of their note-taking process to reinforce understanding.

05:01

🔬 Note-Taking in Science Subjects

The speaker continues with a detailed explanation of their note-taking methods for biology, which involves annotating PDF slides and diagrams to understand and memorize complex biological concepts. They also discuss the importance of adapting note-taking strategies for biochemistry, where they resort to pen and paper due to the lack of clarity in slides, and the need to fill in gaps with annotations. The speaker also touches on the effectiveness of writing on paper for better understanding and memory retention.

10:02

📈 Note-Taking in Mathematics and Humanities

The speaker outlines their approach to note-taking in mathematics, which includes writing down every step of the problem-solving process to avoid confusion later. They also highlight the importance of understanding concepts logically by explaining them in words. For humanities and social sciences, the speaker advises condensing information, focusing on main ideas and supporting details, and avoiding verbosity. They also mention the importance of deciphering verbal information in the absence of slides and the need for concise, relevant notes.

15:02

🌐 Note-Taking for Language Courses and Business Subjects

The speaker discusses note-taking for language courses, recommending the use of simple tables for grammar and vocabulary lists for better memorization. For business subjects, they suggest a combination of strategies from other subjects, such as annotating diagrams and explaining concepts with text. The speaker wraps up by stressing the importance of note-taking as a personalized process, encouraging viewers to adapt the provided tips to their learning style and to use them as tools in their academic journey.

🎓 Conclusion and Call to Action

In conclusion, the speaker reiterates that note-taking should be tailored to individual learning styles and the specific demands of each course. They invite viewers to like, comment, and subscribe for more content, and to follow them on Instagram. The speaker also encourages viewers to share their own note-taking tips and engage in discussion, promising to respond to every comment.

Keywords

💡Note-taking

Note-taking refers to the act of recording information during a lecture, meeting, or while studying. In the video, it is the central theme, as the speaker discusses various strategies for effective note-taking across different subjects. The importance of adapting note-taking methods to the subject matter is emphasized, such as being systematic in chemistry and condensing information in humanities.

💡Pharmacy student

A pharmacy student is someone enrolled in a program of study related to the field of pharmacy. The speaker identifies as an incoming pharmacy student at the University of Waterloo, and this background provides credibility to the advice given on note-taking strategies that are applicable to the rigorous study of pharmacy.

💡Highlighting

Highlighting is a technique used to emphasize important points in text by underlining or using colored markers. The script mentions that the speaker uses highlighting as a pre-lecture activity in chemistry to identify and comprehend key concepts, which helps in not being completely lost during the lecture.

💡Organic Chemistry

Organic Chemistry is a branch of chemistry that focuses on carbon compounds. The video uses it as a primary example when discussing note-taking strategies for chemistry, showing how the speaker organizes and annotates information to enhance understanding of complex topics.

💡Annotation

Annotation in the context of note-taking involves adding comments or clarifications to existing notes or diagrams. The speaker discusses the importance of annotating PDFs or diagrams in biology to understand and memorize complex biological processes and mechanisms.

💡Biology

Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms. The script distinguishes between biology and chemistry, noting that biology is more content-heavy and requires different note-taking strategies, such as annotating diagrams and condensing information.

💡Math

Mathematics, often referred to as math, is the abstract science of number, quantity, and space. The speaker admits math is their weakest link and discusses the importance of writing down every step in mathematical problems to avoid confusion and ensure a logical understanding of the concepts.

💡Humanities

Humanities refers to the study of human culture through disciplines like literature, history, and language. The video emphasizes the need for condensing and organizing notes in humanities to capture the main ideas and supporting details effectively, especially when dealing with large amounts of content.

💡Condensing

Condensing in the context of note-taking means summarizing or reducing information to its most essential elements. The speaker stresses the importance of condensing notes for subjects like humanities and classical mythology to make the information more manageable and memorable.

💡Business

Business refers to the academic study of commerce, management, and operations of enterprises. The script suggests that business courses can incorporate elements from other subjects, such as the need to annotate diagrams and the importance of writing out steps in numerical business courses like finance.

💡Adapting

Adapting in the context of the video means modifying or adjusting note-taking strategies to suit different subjects or teaching styles. The speaker encourages viewers to adapt their note-taking methods based on the course material and their personal learning style to maximize effectiveness.

Highlights

Note-taking is not a one-size-fits-all system and should be adapted depending on the course.

For chemistry, an effective note-taking system involves reading through content and highlighting main ideas before lectures.

Highlighting should be done selectively to capture the rough concept and not overwhelm with details.

Annotations after lectures reinforce understanding and fill in gaps from the initial reading and highlighting.

Creating a fact sheet for chemistry can help memorize key information and concepts quickly.

Incorporating problem-solving into notes provides practical examples that can be referred back to.

Biology note-taking often involves annotating PDFs or slides, especially focusing on diagrams and their explanations.

Annotating biological diagrams is crucial for understanding and memorizing complex processes.

For biochemistry, combining pen and paper with annotations can be effective due to the complexity of the subject.

Writing everything down in math notes is important to avoid skipping steps and to understand the logic behind problem-solving.

Adding text explanations in math notes helps in understanding concepts logically rather than just memorizing steps.

In humanities, condensing information and focusing on main ideas and supporting details is key for effective note-taking.

For language courses, keeping notes simple with tables for grammar and vocabulary lists is beneficial.

In business courses, annotations are important for understanding graphs, diagrams, and charts.

Writing every step in numerical business courses ensures a clear understanding of the concepts being taught.

Condensing notes in content-heavy courses helps in focusing on the main ideas and key supporting details.

Note-taking should be personalized to fit individual learning styles and course requirements.

Adapting note-taking strategies from one course to another can be beneficial if the standard approach is not effective.

Transcripts

hi friends nathan and welcome to my

channel i'm an incoming pharmacy student

at the university of waterloo but i'm

currently

studying at harvard and today i wanted

to share with you how i take notes

depending on the subject

note-taking is not a one-size-fits-all

system and we tend to treat it like it

but it's not

that's why it's so important to know how

to adapt depending on the course

so today i'm going to be showing you

what i did in university

but if you're in high school don't worry

these tips will still apply to you

because a lot of it is actually what i

developed in high school and then

further reinforced in college

so without further ado let's get on to

[Music]

note-taking

[Music]

so the first subject i'm going to start

with is chemistry now chemistry is

not an easy subject and i fully

understand that i've taken a lot of

chemistry in my days and it really

helps when you have a effective

note-taking system

so these are my course notes for organic

chemistry one

and if you don't use course notes then

you can just replace what i'm saying

with your textbook or the slides that

your professor gives you

but i'm just gonna break it down on how

i take notes for chemistry

and i'm using organic chemistry as the

main example but what i'm saying applies

to all

branches of chemistry whether that's

inorganic organic physical whatever

before i even enter the lecture i like

to read through the content and

highlight

so i know a lot of people have mixed

feelings about highlighting but i think

highlighting can be very effective when

done correctly

so what i'm doing is i'm reading the

content and i'm highlighting because

that forces my brain

to comprehend the information you can't

highlight what you don't understand

right

and that just gives me a rough idea so

that going into the lecture

i'm not completely lost this is great

for chemistry because

topics do become very advanced and

complex but you should be doing this as

a practice for all your courses

so this is what it looks like after

reading through and

highlighting and i'm not highlighting

everything like

i don't understand people highlight

everything because it just defeats the

purpose just highlight main ideas a

sentence here and there

just to capture the rough concept so

here it is

all highlighted this is what my notes

will look like going into the lecture

and then after the lecture i would have

made annotations you see here

because you have a rough idea of the

concept already what the professors say

will make a lot more sense

and it'll reinforce what you kind of

already know so that you just get a

stronger

understanding i also like to do myself

is have a kind of fact sheet what i do

is just write down information that is

good to know at the top of my head so

we know that one alkene will have two

cis trans isomers and two stereoisomers

this is information that's good to know

at the top of your head or just little

tricks to remember and that's just what

a fact she is

something you should also be

incorporating into note is problems okay

problems make great examples for you to

refer to

so here we have a compound here it's

reacting with what and it gives you an

example so here

sn2 this is an elimination reaction so

when you're looking back at your notes

you can refer oh this is what an sn2

reaction looks like

this is what an e2 reaction looks like

problems make great examples for you to

refer to

so that's pretty much how i took notes

for chemistry i think with chemistry you

have to be very

systematic and intentional with what

you're doing everything that you're

doing has to have a purpose you know

there's so much to cover and there's no

time to really waste on

ineffective strategies so stick with

these and i'm sure

that chemistry will come a lot easier so

the next topic is

biology and biology is a very different

subject

than chemistry even though they're both

sciences they're very different because

chemistry you have something that is

very

problem heavy and then with biology is

something that is more content heavy

most biology professors will actually

give you slides so that you can follow

along

so definitely use those to your

advantage so for microbiology i

basically just annotated the pdf

on my laptop and it worked perfectly for

me and here i am just annotating

uh the notes here protein feet that

glides along the cell wall

that's just explaining a little more

about the gliding motility right or

protein extensions out of cell better

explaining twitching motility

one thing that is very important is

annotating your biological diagrams

diagrams are great for you know taking

again long paragraphs of text into

really short form easy

visuals to understand and to possibly

even memorize

but they won't make sense if you don't

understand the signs behind them that's

why you have to annotate you can look at

something you know

and it make perfect sense during the

lecture and then you come a few days

after and you're reviewing it's like

what is going on so just making sure

that you're annotating

everything here look i'm annotating the

diagram okay this diagram isn't very

specific you just have two labels here

it gives you what it is but

you know you want to know how this

diagram is working you know if it was to

work

in real life what would it be doing so

here is where i explained that

i wouldn't say there's actually any cons

to over annotating

you know if you over annotate you can

just erase it off after but

make sure you get all the information

during the lecture and then you can

condense as necessary during your study

time so as you saw for microbiology it

worked really well because everything

was pretty

linear if that makes sense uh it's just

words

but if your course requires more drawing

so something like biochemistry then you

have to search up your tactic a little

bit

so if you have an ipad that's great you

can remain paperless

i refuse to go down the ipad route

it's like a whole spiel but like i don't

like the texture of you know

a stylus on a screen and also my writing

looks really ugly on it but you know

credits those people that make it super

nice anyways we're getting off topic

for biochemistry i just had to resort to

old-fashioned pen and paper

i printed out everything

quite thick um but you know you have to

do what you have to do

and there's a whole bunch of studies but

actually writing on paper is very

effective

in terms of remembering the information

and understanding it

here are my biochemistry notes so look

you have this diagram

looking at this diagram you have no idea

what is going on you don't know what

that is you don't know what that is

but during the lecture i'm annotating

okay i know that's glycine

that's tyrosine so when i look back i'll

know actually what is going on here and

i don't have to refer

online all the information is right here

i'm also adding on information so here

we have

just mutations you know i'm adding it's

easier for o2 reduced and effie oxidized

or

against short forms okay move into

pocket your notes can be vague sometimes

you want to be adding in more

information to help you better

understand it

yeah that's pretty much what i did for

biochemistry

notice that there's a lot more

annotations being made in biochemistry

and that's pretty much because of the

prof uh her slides were very vague and i

needed to fill in the gaps and

sometimes profs will test a lot on what

they say verbally and not so much what's

on these slides

so just making sure that you're

accommodating and you're adapting to how

the prof is teaching and how they will

be

eventually testing you now on to

everyone's

favorite subject math as a stem major

and now as a pharmacy student

math is always my weakest link it was a

very tough subject and i had to work

twice as hard to get the grade that i

wanted

but there is a method to the madness

and that method unfortunately is pretty

much write everything down on the board

i usually don't like to say that but

with math you should be writing

everything down on the board because

it's step based so you

don't want to be skipping any steps

because i promise you you're gonna you

know think you know the steps you're

gonna write maybe skip a couple steps

skip three steps and then you're looking

back at it a couple days later

and you'll be like how the did i get

from

a to b c to e and it's just gonna be

really confusing so write everything

down

you really need to these are what my

math notes look like

very simple i have my information black

pen

examples are written with pencil i just

highlight key ideas and terms

one thing that you will notice that i do

a little bit unique is that i have a lot

of text and i'm actually explaining how

to do this question

in words and what this does is that it

ensures that i

understand the concept logically rather

than just using numbers to explain

something

i'm really understanding it by the words

you can see that i'm not just you know

having examples i'm actually listing the

steps that i would go about

to solve a question and this again is

ensuring that i'm looking at a question

logically and i'm actually understanding

what is happening

with math we tend to almost memorize

questions

and that will do you no good on an exam

props are smart and they tend to

write questions that testes you on

knowledge that you already have that

you've learned

but they twist it or they modify it in a

way that you've never seen it before

and that can really trip up a lot of

students and it's tripped up me before

and it's just not fun because you know

how to do it but you just never seen it

in a way and that's when

thinking logically and what i told you

previously doing the steps

writing it in words doing that will

ensure that you actually understand the

material and then you're able to

replicate it no matter

what the question looks like i would say

my notes are around

sixty percent uh examples and forty

percent text and it surprises people

when people look at my notes like well

you write a lot for

like math and it's because again it

helps me

understand the concept and i'm sure if

you start adding text to your notes as

well

just on the side you know what i mean

put it in addition to the numbers in

addition to the examples

and trust me the concepts will make a

lot more sense

next we're talking about humanity social

sciences

so this is psychology history

literature et cetera et cetera and

with humanities in general they're very

content heavy and when i say very

content heavy

very content heavy so you want to ensure

that you're condensing as

much as possible i took a classic

classical mythology

course as an elective and each chapter

would have around three to five pages of

notes like typed

and that was with me condensing as much

as possible already

imagine if it wasn't condensed we would

be running 10 pages long

make sure to condense condensed condense

and again you should be condensing every

single course except for math

don't condense your math notes most

courses you should be convinced because

the profit is giving you a lot of

information that's

what their job is right it's better to

give more information during a lecture

than it is to give less

but your job as a student is to be able

to separate what's relevant

and what's irrelevant what's uh the main

detail

and the supporting idea what's no the

main idea and the supporting detail

there we go and one thing that a lot of

people don't know about is that

a lot of humanities professors will

actually not have any slides

for them which is

not the best but it's kind of just how a

lot of them

work and that can be a top for a lot of

people because

you're getting all this verbal

information and you have to be able to

decipher

the verbal information so when you're

typing up your notes or writing whatever

you have to be able to cut out the

filler words cut out the redundant

adjectives

right because it's going to be verbal so

it's going to be a conversational

tone and your notes shouldn't be

conversational your note should be

short and sweet and to the point this

was a lecture about athena the greek

goddess of wisdom so here we have the

title

um and then her the main ideas we'll be

looking at are the attributes the

domestic arts

non-domestic arts and the patron of

heroes and here we have the supporting

details so we're talking about spinning

and weaving for the domestic arts

carpentry horse training for the

non-domestic arts and notice that these

are all

one word two-word kind of supporting

details with

examples or stories to flesh it all out

and if you know the story between

arachne and athena you'll know that it's

very

long very extensive but i've just

condensed it into three

bullet points that's all you need

practice being able to

really condense and know what's relevant

i actually took latin and it was one of

my favorite electives but with the

language

course you want to make your notes as

simple as possible

with languages it's focusing on a lot of

foundational material so you're looking

at

grammar you're looking at rules you're

looking at vocabulary

don't be writing paragraphs don't be

writing

full sentences you don't need to keep it

simple if you're doing grammar

organize it in tables nothing fancy each

singular plural

and the endings show what the endings

are

and tables tables okay tables

very easy to refer back to and to

memorize especially if you just want to

write these

during an exam you know at the back of

the paper and just draw these out and

write them and then you have them to

refer to

another thing for languages is that you

should have a vocabulary list in your

notes so

again just make it simple a t table you

have your

latin word your english word latin

english learn

english and just have vocab you'll be

surprised at how much vocabulary lists

can help you

i got basically full marks on all my

translations because i knew the

vocabulary inside out

okay so just study the vocabulary make

them because a lot of them

don't give it to you so it's your kind

of your responsibility to make it and

study from it

and i'm telling you those will help you

so so much the last subject is

business and business can be all over

the place you know

there are elements of humanities in

there there are elements of

math in there so you really want to i

guess kind of take the tips from the

different subjects

and kind of mold it into business we

talked previously about the importance

of annotating so annotate your graphs

and your diagrams and your chart these

are all very good

for visual explanation but again you

have to have that underlying

understanding that comes with the

annotations for more numerical business

courses like finance and accounting make

sure you are

writing every single step that the

professor is writing on the board

make sure that you are explaining

concepts with text rather than just

using numbers or showing it with an

example okay

make sure you use the text and again

condense your notes okay

in courses like international business

or economics it can

be pretty thick and pretty content heavy

so just take the main idea and then

maybe have a few supporting details so

examples case studies etc etc that kind

of stuff

and your notes will be very very

coherent and be good to study from

so those are my tips on how to study for

biology chemistry

math i just had a brain fart

biology chemistry math humanities and

business

taking notes is more than just

highlighting and underlining and

scribbling some things down

it's really about taking the information

condensing it

and organizing the layout so that it

makes sense to you and that you can

use it to learn and to study from and

having

it laid out in a way that's effective

for you

just make sure that you remember that

note-taking is not a one-size-fits-all

and that every single course should have

a different way of taking

notes also feel free to modify these

tips according to your learning style

you saw that i use very little color if

you like using color if you think that

helps you

go for it you know i do occasionally do

take um

the tactics that from one course into

another course right it's all about

adapting it okay if you feel like

this prop is teaching in a way that is

not so much effective

with just your standard humanities you

know take some elements from another

course and implement them in and try

that

these are a set of tools that you can

have in your toolbox

so you can whip them out for the kill

when you need to and get those a

plus that you deserve if you found this

video uh make sure to give it a like

comment how you take your notes or what

was your favorite tip uh in this video

i respond to every single comment make

sure to subscribe

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linked below but that's it for me and i

will see you friends in the next video

bye

missing someone