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The Best Note-Taking Techniques for Exams? Think Like a Teacher

Want to turn your notes into powerful study tools? Matrix Scholarship student Jude shares how he takes notes like a teacher to master content, not just memorise it.

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Want to know the best note-taking techniques for your HSC or VCE exams?

Imagine your favourite teacher – someone who explains so effortlessly, answers questions with clarity, and brings passion to the process of learning. How do they do it?

Their mastery of the subject is not a gift. It’s the product of engaging and learning from different resources. Teachers can’t afford to cram, nor to recite from a textbook. They have to ensure a deep understanding and the ability to communicate ideas effectively.

They have to be prepared to re-explain, simplify, and answer questions they never even considered.

What if you adopted the same mindset? 

What if you replaced your mindset of learning with the mindset of teaching? 

What if you stopped taking notes to memorise, but to teach?

Table of contents:

Why traditional note-taking techniques fail

Most students approach note-taking in the wrong way: 

  • Copying ≠ Learning: Transcribing lectures and textbooks does little in deepening understanding, you need to organise information in your own way
  • Aesthetic overload: Pretty notes aren’t effective notes. Learning is supposed to be messy; it’s not linear, and it is subject to constant change. You have to leave space for all the corrections and additions you are bound to make.
  • Passive storage: Notes shouldn’t be an archive but rather should fuel thinking. Consider the parts you don’t understand, e.g. the reasons as to why the firm may act in a certain way.

matrix education levels of understanding

Most of the traditional note-taking styles are limited, as they are plagued by low-order skills on the Bloom’s Taxonomy, e.g. remembering as opposed to evaluating

What great teachers and learners do differently 

Teachers don’t just take notes, they interact with them. This involves: 

  1. Offloading cognitive load: writing down key considerations, questions, and uncertainties frees up mental space for deeper understanding.
  2. Synthesising knowledge: connecting concepts from multiple sources (lectures, videos, practice questions) into a cohesive latticework of mental models
  3. Preparing for questions: Anticipating gaps in understanding and refining explanations

As American physicist Richard Feynman rightfully said, “Notes aren’t a record of my note taking. They are my thinking process.”

How to take notes like a teacher

For our study of the Conflict in Indochina (1954-1979), my note-taking process had to be adapted to fit the demands of writing detailed and complex essays. This included a mix of handwritten notes and typed notes. 

This big shift in my learning process came from asking my Matrix teachers how they teach; they were the ones who introduced meta-learning (learning about learning) and how to rethink note-taking. 

Let me walk you through my four phases of note-taking, with my own study process as an example.

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1. Start with structure:

  • Use syllabus dot points or key headings as a skeleton for the details that you fill in 
    • The new feature of pages on Docs, or using Notion, can be incredibly useful in having an easily accessible blank canvas for each dot point
  • Focus on big ideas first – dates and details can come after events and trends

Throughout the term, it is essential to jot down notes and questions from multiple modes (YouTube explanations, historical encyclopedias, different textbooks and documentaries). 

2. Capture the right things:

  • Key jargon & concepts: These will prove essential in developing literacy and fluency in the topic

3. Ask questions, questions, questions! Note down:

  • Exam style questions with different action terms, e.g. Assess the impact, discuss…
  • Theory questions: What are the goals of a firm?
  • Uncertainties: What don’t you understand?

My questions focused on answering details and relationships. For example, “What escalated US involvement from the Advisory Period to the Counterinsurgency Role?”, “What was the difference between Agrovilles and Strategic Hamlets?”

4. Revise and expand dynamically: 

  • Continue to revise and populate this set of notes with more information and more resources that are relevant to each dot point. 
  • YouTube videos are useful in explaining the content that you may struggle with, and help you develop fluency in your explanations. 
  • For Math and Science, annotate problem-solving steps and verbalise mistakes (see below).

    matrix education using the chain rule to differentiate as note-taking techniques
    Diagram 1: Differentiating using the chain rule
  • Mind Maps, tables and diagrams are particularly useful in organising and developing relationships between what you are learning (see below).

    matrix education mind map of note-taking techniques
    Diagram 2: Min map of note-taking techniques

For example, I used Mind Maps and Flow Charts to define key terms and major concepts.

matrix education jude mind map
Diagram 3: Jude’s study mind map
matrix education comparison table
Diagram 4: Comparison table for Internal Economies and Diseconomies of Scale
matrix education jude's theme sheet
Diagram 5: Theme sheet

By structuring into common themes, I reorganised statistics, quotes and details into common themes (social, political, economic, military). This facilitated the transition to writing essay plans while still using shorthand to maximise efficiency. 

5. Merge notes with active recall

  • Blurting: Test yourself by answering questions with all relevant details and events, then add in a different colour the details you missed. This provides a model response sheet that also distinguishes the details you tend to forget.
  • Priming: Read before classes and utilise teacher explanations to nuance your understanding
  • Feynman Technique: Try to teach the content to someone just starting out, and replace the jargon you would be using in an exam with explanations that outline the internal logic behind the concepts (Diagram 6)

    matrix education feynman note-taking technique
    Daigram 6: The Feynman Technique
  • Flashcards (Anki):  Utilise flashcards for terms and questions; they should be your best friend. Apps like Anki are useful in encouraging a habit of spaced repetition that is proven to be most effective in battling the “forgetting curve” 

In this phase of doing practice papers, update your notes with new questions and example questions to remember how to respond to different action words. Simultaneously, I kept a doc to collate different sources, e.g. historian quotes or for submitting essays and essay plans to friends and teachers. 

I responded to different questions on Practice Planning Sheets with the focus of crafting nuanced theses and topic sentences. After I was done, I would blurt out relevant information and fill in additional details in another colour.

This exposed me to a variety of questions and encouraged me to reshape my knowledge into the structure of an essay.

Example:

2022 HSC (A)Why did the USA withdraw from Vietnam?
ThesisThe United States’ 1973 withdrawal from Vietnam in the Second Indochina War was the culmination of its countless blunders in military strategies and tactics, as well as the deteriorating social and political home front.
Paragraph 1Inexperienced with the fighting conditions of Vietnam, the US-ARVN reliance on their strategy of conventional warfare was insufficient in reaching the “tipping point” of weakening the NVA-NLF resolve. 
Paragraph 2Anti-war movements rose to prominence in response to the revealed brutalities in Vietnam, questioning the efficacy and ethicality of US intervention.
Paragraph 3In response to such social instability, the Johnson Administration’s popularity and funding deteriorated, prompting Nixon’s withdrawal through Vietnamisation. 

Summary of note-taking techniques

Initially, I found note-taking to be too tedious and time-consuming. I doubted its purpose and efficacy, considering the breadth of resources that were already available. Now, I consider note-taking as a means of actively engaging and breaking down information.

Instead of recording information, I prioritise articulating and thus simplifying concepts and relationships. To those struggling with note-taking, I highly recommend you use your notes to:

  • Clarify confusion and confront knowledge gaps
  • Record the dynamic nature of understanding  
  • Systematise the answering of questions 

So next time you struggle to recall information in an exam, don’t blame your memory; reconsider your method. 

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Written by Guest Author

We have regular contributions to our blog from our Tutor Team and high performing Matrix Students. Come back regularly for these guest posts to learn their study hacks and insights!

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