Taking notes in nursing school is completely different and the reason being is that the professors usually don’t share power point slides and even if they do, it is pretty vague. They expect you to read the books and understand what they explain in lecture. There is no such thing as memorization in nursing school because all the tests and exams are applied knowledge based.
When I was doing my prerequisities all my notes were neat and clean. They were all rainbows and sunshine (literally!) because I had all the time in the world to decorate with different color pens, and highlight. I had to completely change my style of taking notes when I started my nursing classes. Pretty bummed by it because my notes aren’t as pretty but it’s organized.
Before taking notes, I always read the materials ahead of time. This keeps me focused in class and I understand what the professor is talking about. If I missed anything while reading or had any questions, I would write them down and get it cleared out at the end of class.
So here are the changes I made while taking notes this semester:
1. I use only one type of black ink pen for all my note-taking. It’s the zebra black ink in 0.5 mm tip and it keeps your handwriting neat. This saves my time since I am not constantly changing the colors of the pen in between writing.
2. I use the Stabilo Boss highlighter to highlight main points. This highlighter does not smudge your ink and dries quickly. It gives the highlighting a clean finish.
3. There are so many different ways to take notes and it really depends on the person. I feel like the outlining method works best for me and this is how I usually take my notes. I personally don’t like the Cornell method only because it tends to get messy for me.
I write down questions on the bottom of my notes if I have any. Because questions pop up when you have covered a certain amount of topics.
I, also have a group study sessions with like 2-3 people and we usually meet up on zoom after we have covered the materials for exam on our own. That way we don’t waste time on going over everything but rather have all the questions ready in hand. It is always best to ask questions to your friends because they might understand a topic (that you’re having difficulty in) in a much simpler and better way and help you out with it.
If you have issues trying to figure out what note-taking methods work best for you, I’d recommend picking a few and giving them a try. See which one you like better and which one helps you take more meaningful notes.
Here are some note-taking methods that you can find online:
=>The outline method
=>The Cornell method
=>The boxing method
=>The charting method
=>The mapping method
As usual, if you have a different note-taking method that works for you, feel free to share on the comments down below! I’d love to learn more about it 🙂
Happy Studying!!
The Studious Mom 