Habits are not developed overnight. Rather, one needs to devotedly work on something for a long time to turn it into a habit. One is always expected to develop good practices and habits. Similarly, a student is usually encouraged to develop practices like note-taking. You will not find any topper or rank holders who didn’t take notes while studying. This is a very good habit and must be infused in children from a very young age.
Note-taking can be of various kinds, one being when your teacher teaches you a chapter or topic. They tend to tell you a lot of important points and keywords that you will not find in your textbook, and it is not possible to remember everything when you go home and sit to study yourself. So, the easy solution to this is to have a rough notebook with you and jot down the important points and keywords while listening to the explanation simultaneously.
If you are able to take down a few important explanations corresponding to a few important words in your book, that will be even more beneficial. There are words for which you might not know the meaning, and in such cases, you can ask your teacher to tell you the meaning and you can note it down alongside the word so that when you study next time, there’s no void remaining in your understanding.
When you have jotted down the important keywords and points, you can also design your answers from those notes. You can also use the same keywords used by your teacher in your answers and impress them in your exam. These are clever techniques of grabbing your teacher’s attention which might ultimately lead to higher marks.
Apart from this, you can also make your own notes when you study by yourself. Here, while you study a particular topic, you should note down the topics in brief in your own words that you consider to be important. This way you will be able to convert the entire chapter into a short and crisp note with all the relevant information. This will ease out your studying and save you time when you have to rush and complete the entire syllabus before the exam. If you study and revise from this, you will know that you don’t have to go back to read the entire chapter again.
Along with this, you can also write your own answers or notes for the questions given in the exercises. Although you will have NCERT solutions ready at your hand, you can still make your own notes taking help from the NCERT solutions. This will help you write the best answers among all your classmates.
It is seen that students do not consider the significance of effective note-taking practices, but here is where they falter. Note-taking is a highly underrated practice seen among the present generation of students. Note-taking keeps you in a constant practice of both reading and writing, which ultimately prove to be useful in bringing you good grades.
The NCERT textbooks have various questions and problems that you need to solve. You also get important questions from each chapter that are likely to come for your exams. When you have these questions available to you, you must prepare proper answers for them. To do so, you must make it a habit to prepare notes every time you study something or hear something relevant.
While you work on your notes, you also get an idea of framing your answers properly. This will give you an idea of how you should write your answers, that is, whether writing it in points or tables or paragraphs will fetch you more marks or not. It will also help you memorize things better because when you write on a topic, you end by reading it out either loudly or in your mind. So, it automatically gives you an advantage, helping you keep things in your memory for a longer time.
Note-taking also improves your speed of writing as you have to take quick notes while you are being taught in your class. This habit of writing will help you to write faster in your exams and you will not have to face difficulty in managing your time.
Note-taking also increases your attention and improves your concentration. This is because while you are taking quick running notes, you are writing, listening and understanding the topics simultaneously. This not only makes you more efficient but also helps you be more attentive in your class lessons and ultimately brings positive growth in your academic life.
When you become quite habituated to taking notes from a very young age, it really helps you in your higher classes. This is because you can usually not expect ready-made answers from your teachers and you will have to write long answers all by yourself. At this point, your note-taking practices will come into use. Even in the future, in your job or work life, you will understand the effectiveness of this practice.
Hence, as a CBSE student, you must make it your habit to take notes from a very young age, whenever you can. This will help you in all your exams alongside your board exams and your future life as well. You will be able to understand the effectiveness of this practice yourself once you get accustomed to it. Apart from following these tips, it is important to make sure that you are taking some time out for exercise, eating healthy food and spending some time on your favourite activities. Make sure to reach out to your mentors if you are stuck anywhere. This will not only help you in preparing for board exams but also for competitive exams.
