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How detailed are your notes? (1 Viewer)

rach19

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You should write summaries over and over, reducing them down to single sentances or words. Its the act of re-writing info, recalling it, remembering that will help you. There is no point writing out slabs of things you cant remember. Playing word association helped me to link words and topics
 

abhi23

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Hey guys
i finished my physics notes for Space last week. They're handwritten with diagrams etc. and ended up being around 40 pages. I know they would take up a smaller number of pages if typed but does that sound reasonable?

I used both Jacaranda Physics 2 and Excel, combining the two. Hopefully they are detailed enough!!
 

Babbu

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-may-cat- said:
how do you study for exams without notes? or do all your subjects have textbooks?

I just read the text books from page to page. People laugh at me when I tell them I read even physics and chem texts like story books and go for the exam. And I don't do bad either. Well at least it went fine till now but now I'm getting anxious as I don't know how to make notes. Textbooks? Yes I read a lot from even higher level books. Overall vast knowledge has helped till now but could be tricky for HSC.
Actually I don't have subjects with vast syllabi like biology, history etc that do require notes.
 

-may-cat-

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Babbu said:
I just read the text books from page to page. People laugh at me when I tell them I read even physics and chem texts like story books and go for the exam. And I don't do bad either. Well at least it went fine till now but now I'm getting anxious as I don't know how to make notes. Textbooks? Yes I read a lot from even higher level books. Overall vast knowledge has helped till now but could be tricky for HSC.
Actually I don't have subjects with vast syllabi like biology, history etc that do require notes.
hm, thats so odd, but if it works for you, hey, what can i say?
 

scora

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o god, now everyone's worrying about:

-whether they have too much
-whether they have too little

forget about it, what works for someone won't necessarily work for you, accept it
 

shantu1992

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jennieTalia said:
Just my little suggestion. I got 96.2 for my UAI as well :)

How I did my notes-
(I did Ancient, Modern, Eng, Eng Ext 1, religion 1U, drama)

Read textbook.
Highlighted in textbook and annotated everything in there really well.
Write extremely detailed notes that laboured over every point so that I knew I had at least written it out once.
Highlight these notes.
Cut out key points and compact it to two pages per topic MAX. I call these my "cheat sheets" basically lists/diagrams that you COMMIT TO MEMORY. These things need to be memorised, so try and do yourself a favour and make them colourful and interesting and stick em on your wall or something.
TYPE THE CHEAT SHEET UP for clarity, but hand write all the other notes (it makes it stick in your mind more, and it gives you good practice for chugging out the essays).

Notes are NOT the most important thing to study with. I find them useless unless you have a good method (aka the cheat sheet etc).
Better ways include-
*Quote flash cards. See how many you can remember. Stick them everywhere. Fridge, toilet door :p etc.
*Audio learning- Record your voice saying them and listen to it on repeat. (Particularly useful if you record to phone and listen on the bus whilst unwinding before an assessment or something).
*Visual learning- Have to remember the stages of Vesuvius erupting? Have 4 mad colourful pictures right next to your bed to look at.
*Extra- Read around. Read fictional stories about the historical events you are studying. Look up internet sites for the topics and keep reading. Youtube video EVERYTHING. Attending lectures and such at HSC help days can be useful as well.
*Mindmapping- We all hate it, because it sucks. But it DOES work. Especially when you cbf to write a practice essay, so just skeleton it out instead writing quotes that you would use etc within the mindmap. Mindmaps on walls are also useful.
*Have some fun- Make games out of your study. I used to remember historical sources and posters by re-captioning them with a friend of mine with funny things.
*Acronyms. Cut your notes down and instead of remembering the three battles I remembered the three letters C S P. Shortening things helps them stay in your mind. Having a laugh out of them is also somewhat necessary :p. One I used with a friend was along the lines of "Dead Brains Run In Purple Streams"....

Also, check out study guides. If you aren't keen on the cheat sheet then use the simplistic detail in them to make up basic notes of the things you HAVE to know. Then once you have learnt these, start making more in-depth ones that will keep stepping you up an extra band.

Good Luck!
that is really good!
what ive been told to do is keep making the notes smaller and smaller like you just said.. until its just words on pages that you will automatically be able to elaborate on
 

shantu1992

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rach19 said:
You should write summaries over and over, reducing them down to single sentances or words. Its the act of re-writing info, recalling it, remembering that will help you. There is no point writing out slabs of things you cant remember. Playing word association helped me to link words and topics
totally agree
 

MSELIM2

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jennieTalia said:
Just my little suggestion. I got 96.2 for my UAI as well :)

How I did my notes-
(I did Ancient, Modern, Eng, Eng Ext 1, religion 1U, drama)

Read textbook.
Highlighted in textbook and annotated everything in there really well.
Write extremely detailed notes that laboured over every point so that I knew I had at least written it out once.
Highlight these notes.
Cut out key points and compact it to two pages per topic MAX. I call these my "cheat sheets" basically lists/diagrams that you COMMIT TO MEMORY. These things need to be memorised, so try and do yourself a favour and make them colourful and interesting and stick em on your wall or something.
TYPE THE CHEAT SHEET UP for clarity, but hand write all the other notes (it makes it stick in your mind more, and it gives you good practice for chugging out the essays).

Notes are NOT the most important thing to study with. I find them useless unless you have a good method (aka the cheat sheet etc).
Better ways include-
*Quote flash cards. See how many you can remember. Stick them everywhere. Fridge, toilet door :p etc.
*Audio learning- Record your voice saying them and listen to it on repeat. (Particularly useful if you record to phone and listen on the bus whilst unwinding before an assessment or something).
*Visual learning- Have to remember the stages of Vesuvius erupting? Have 4 mad colourful pictures right next to your bed to look at.
*Extra- Read around. Read fictional stories about the historical events you are studying. Look up internet sites for the topics and keep reading. Youtube video EVERYTHING. Attending lectures and such at HSC help days can be useful as well.
*Mindmapping- We all hate it, because it sucks. But it DOES work. Especially when you cbf to write a practice essay, so just skeleton it out instead writing quotes that you would use etc within the mindmap. Mindmaps on walls are also useful.
*Have some fun- Make games out of your study. I used to remember historical sources and posters by re-captioning them with a friend of mine with funny things.
*Acronyms. Cut your notes down and instead of remembering the three battles I remembered the three letters C S P. Shortening things helps them stay in your mind. Having a laugh out of them is also somewhat necessary :p. One I used with a friend was along the lines of "Dead Brains Run In Purple Streams"....

Also, check out study guides. If you aren't keen on the cheat sheet then use the simplistic detail in them to make up basic notes of the things you HAVE to know. Then once you have learnt these, start making more in-depth ones that will keep stepping you up an extra band.

Good Luck!

That was really helpful thanks :)
 

MSELIM2

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eggy91 said:
Lol nah you'll be right, just make new notes and only take the most relevant content. For religion were you talking about the 1 unit course (SOR I) ? Cause if so for the first topic "religion in australia post 1945" you should really only be doing about 6-8 pages typed cause its only worth 30% of the test and there is not much you need to know.
your right, i get carried away sometimes, and think that everything is important, nah im doing 2 unit, but "religion in australia post 1945" as you said is a very small percentage of the exam compared to other topics

thanxx :)
 

nottellingu

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Dont be afraid if ur notes are too long. First write down everything u need to know then just cut down on verbosity and repetition.
My notes were about 40 pages per module handwritten including diagrams and pracs.
 

Sarah182

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Babbu said:
I just read the text books from page to page. People laugh at me when I tell them I read even physics and chem texts like story books and go for the exam. And I don't do bad either.
Well the guy who I duxed Year 11 with does that. He has been the smartest kid in the year from Year 7 and he just reads for his subjects, he told me that he doesn't remember stuff when he writes notes.
 

willemhenskens

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shantu1992 said:
a board of studies liason officer came to our school a few weeks before school finished for a study skill seminar
she said those who do notes will no doubt do better than thsoe who dont
i tried explaining to h er that different people have different learning methods that work best for them
she wouldnt listen though
i think shes a bit shifty
btw she got a uai of 99.45 i think
Don't worry about what other people say. Do whatever works best for you, and stick to it. And don't stress out, just relax :)
 
Last edited:

nottellingu

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abhi23 said:
Hey guys
i finished my physics notes for Space last week. They're handwritten with diagrams etc. and ended up being around 40 pages. I know they would take up a smaller number of pages if typed but does that sound reasonable?

I used both Jacaranda Physics 2 and Excel, combining the two. Hopefully they are detailed enough!!
Sounds good to me :)
 

missgraceful

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Random question: Do you think handwriting your notes is more beneficial than typing them?
Because I have been handwriting them all and I am really getting sick of it!
What does everyone else do?
:)
 

-may-cat-

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missgraceful said:
Random question: Do you think handwriting your notes is more beneficial than typing them?
Because I have been handwriting them all and I am really getting sick of it!
What does everyone else do?
:)
I think there have been studies on this that prove handwriting notes helps store them in your long term memory better...
 

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