Note-Taking Strategies
Contributor(s): Karrington Seals (’23)
Mastering the skill of note-taking will help reinforce concepts learned throughout the Blocks, and the most effective note-taking skills will keep the information relevant in your head all the way to the end of block exams and even USMLE Step 1. The importance of notetaking is to make recall easier after the first pass of information.
General Advice
Don’t marry one particular method of notetaking immediately. Shop around! You may like printer paper with colored pens, or notebook paper and a number two yellow pencil. Others prefer using iPads or tablets to write out e-notes, and others like typing their notes. Again, you must figure out what works for you and the first couple blocks are a great space to learn what best suits you.
Apps
Microsoft OneNote
With your shiny new case email, you have access to a free download of Microsoft office.
There are two versions of OneNote, the app version you can download from your respective app store, or the version that comes with Microsoft office. From experience, the one that comes with Microsoft office is more reliable and crashes much less often (if ever).
Some of my favorite built in capabilities:
Notability
Notability is a paid ($9.99) app for the iPhone and iPad. It has many of the same capabilities of OneNote (annotating PDFs, inserting photographs, mirroring your handwriting, etc.) and these documents are easily emailed or shared via Google Drive (the crowned jewel of our medical school). Notability also has the capability to record lectures and if you are on the go, you can access your notability on your iPhone.
Notion
Notion is a free (when you use your school email), multifunctional app that can be downloaded from the internet. It is an easy way to keep all of your documents in one, easily maneuvered place. There is also a build in task-manager that improves productivity. If you are scatterbrained or really focused on organization, this is a great app for you. Some of my favorite functions in this app include:
This app is really cool, but slightly involved. If you have the time to explore and eventually get the hang of it
you’ll love it! If organization is not your thing, try this out.
Google Docs
This is an oldie but a goodie that requires little introduction or explanation. Google docs is an easy way to make sure your information is always saved to the cloud and can easily be collaborated with by your peers. This is a fan favorite for collaborative GARQ writing, IQ and any other time collaboration is needed. This is a “must bookmark” for your computer.
Microsoft Word
Another oldie but a goodie. Word is a great place to type out organized notes (and study guides, if you ask me). I like to use word when I am watching videos (Sketchy, Boards & Beyond, Pathoma, Osmosis) to write out quick, bulleted notes, and then use one of the other mechanisms of notetaking to expand on those notes. Word is pretty self-explanatory, but something you may not know is you can write in Word if your computer has that capability. So if you are watching Osmosis, see a cool diagram but you’re typing your notes, press Ctrl + Enter, to put you on a new page, insert your diagram, and then keep on typing!
How Do I Approach Note-Taking in Medical School?
PowerPoint-Based Notes
Similar to the popular note taking method in college, people will print out the PowerPoint or insert it into one of their note taking apps and then write alongside the PowerPoint.
Taking Notes Cold
Others will sit during a lecture and only add notes when they hear something important or emphasized during the lecture.
Taking Them According to the Pre-reading
Less popular, but still valid, people will do the pre-reading, take notes and then annotate next to or in between those notes.
Pro-Tip
Notes for lectures and IQ research may look different. Just keep everything organized and legible.
Again, you have to do what is most comfortable for you. Notetaking is an artform as corny as that sounds, so it will take time to develop your favorite method(s).
General Advice
Don’t marry one particular method of notetaking immediately. Shop around! You may like printer paper with colored pens, or notebook paper and a number two yellow pencil. Others prefer using iPads or tablets to write out e-notes, and others like typing their notes. Again, you must figure out what works for you and the first couple blocks are a great space to learn what best suits you.
Apps
Microsoft OneNote
With your shiny new case email, you have access to a free download of Microsoft office.
There are two versions of OneNote, the app version you can download from your respective app store, or the version that comes with Microsoft office. From experience, the one that comes with Microsoft office is more reliable and crashes much less often (if ever).
Some of my favorite built in capabilities:
- Recording audio of lectures right on the page
- Entering PDF or PowerPoint Lectures (file print out)
- Writing capability that mirrors your handwriting quite accurately
- The ability to create section groups, and numerous sections for elite organization
- Ability to insert and watch YouTube videos within OneNote
- View the page with ruled lines (so you can pretend to use notebook paper)
- It goes across platforms and everything is saved, and you can access it on multiple devices
- You can search audio recordings
- There are page templates including planners and to do lists
- There is a OneNote Web Clipper Extension for chrome
Notability
Notability is a paid ($9.99) app for the iPhone and iPad. It has many of the same capabilities of OneNote (annotating PDFs, inserting photographs, mirroring your handwriting, etc.) and these documents are easily emailed or shared via Google Drive (the crowned jewel of our medical school). Notability also has the capability to record lectures and if you are on the go, you can access your notability on your iPhone.
Notion
Notion is a free (when you use your school email), multifunctional app that can be downloaded from the internet. It is an easy way to keep all of your documents in one, easily maneuvered place. There is also a build in task-manager that improves productivity. If you are scatterbrained or really focused on organization, this is a great app for you. Some of my favorite functions in this app include:
- The ability to physically check off sections that you have reviewed
- The numerous videos on the app (and on YouTube) that show you how to better navigate the app
- Article links can be stored in the app
- This makes it a really great way to organize pre-reading and preparatory work for the week
- The Notion web clipper
- Premade templates (there are a TON)
This app is really cool, but slightly involved. If you have the time to explore and eventually get the hang of it
you’ll love it! If organization is not your thing, try this out.
Google Docs
This is an oldie but a goodie that requires little introduction or explanation. Google docs is an easy way to make sure your information is always saved to the cloud and can easily be collaborated with by your peers. This is a fan favorite for collaborative GARQ writing, IQ and any other time collaboration is needed. This is a “must bookmark” for your computer.
Microsoft Word
Another oldie but a goodie. Word is a great place to type out organized notes (and study guides, if you ask me). I like to use word when I am watching videos (Sketchy, Boards & Beyond, Pathoma, Osmosis) to write out quick, bulleted notes, and then use one of the other mechanisms of notetaking to expand on those notes. Word is pretty self-explanatory, but something you may not know is you can write in Word if your computer has that capability. So if you are watching Osmosis, see a cool diagram but you’re typing your notes, press Ctrl + Enter, to put you on a new page, insert your diagram, and then keep on typing!
How Do I Approach Note-Taking in Medical School?
- Everyone has their own approach, below I will list and describe some of the popular options
- Learning Objective (LO) Based Notes
- Before every lecture, professors provide learning objectives for the content they are presenting on. Many people will take these objectives, and take notes underneath each objective, contributing information from the lecture that supports the learning objective.
- In Block’s 1 and 2, you are provided weekly learning objectives to ascertain that you are understanding what information you should be gathering from lectures, some people go as far as to break this up according to the lecture and take notes that way or use those learning objectives to serve as a self-check at the end of a week.
PowerPoint-Based Notes
Similar to the popular note taking method in college, people will print out the PowerPoint or insert it into one of their note taking apps and then write alongside the PowerPoint.
Taking Notes Cold
Others will sit during a lecture and only add notes when they hear something important or emphasized during the lecture.
Taking Them According to the Pre-reading
Less popular, but still valid, people will do the pre-reading, take notes and then annotate next to or in between those notes.
Pro-Tip
Notes for lectures and IQ research may look different. Just keep everything organized and legible.
Again, you have to do what is most comfortable for you. Notetaking is an artform as corny as that sounds, so it will take time to develop your favorite method(s).