How to Organize Your Class Notes for Finals

By Brittany Loeffler on April 22, 2017

After taking a full semester of classes, you’re bound to have course notes scattered around your dorm room. With finals approaching, it’s important to get all of your notes together to study from. This can be challenging when your notes are in different notebooks, mixed in with notes from other classes, or scrambled and indecipherable.

The first step to studying for midterms or finals is to organize class notes so they are legible and easy to understand, giving you the potential to pass the class.

via Pixabay

Review

Collect all of your notes from one class, whether that means ripping pages out of your day planner, having a stack of notebooks, or pulling up saved documents on your computer. Get all of your notes together in one place and read over them.

While reviewing your notes, write down thoughts or things that should be added. There are many times a student will take notes for a class without fully understanding the topic, but after learning about it more and comprehending the topic, you can adjust your notes correctly. If there is something unimportant in your notes, then cross it out. There’s no use in reviewing something that is either irrelevant or not important to the course or the exam.

via Pixabay

Categorize

After you have reviewed your notes, categorize them so they make sense. This will be different depending on the classes you take. If it is a math or science class, your notes may be categorized by sequence learned, since it is a subject that builds off of previous knowledge. The same goes for foreign languages. You must remember the concepts learned in the first chapter in order to understand the concepts taught in the last chapter. For classes that fit this description, the best way to organize class notes is by chapter.

If the course is an English or history class, it may be best to categorize your notes by topic. If you have read multiple books in an English class, categorize your notes for each book. If the class focused on multiple literary periods and you read many works from each period, categorize your notes by each period, and then have a subcategory for each of the notes of each work read.

By categorizing your notes, you are able to go back and study from them without searching for too long.

via Pixabay

Format

Each student learns differently, so it is important to know your learning style. This will be a factor for when you format your notes. Some people learn best with bulleted lists. Other students may learn better using detailed outlines.

Once you determine your learning style, it will not only make organizing class notes easier but also help you in every class you take in college.

via Pixabay

Rewrite

If your notes are scattered in different notebooks or on scraps of paper, rewrite them so they are all in one place. This can be done after you have categorized your notes and decided which format will work best for your learning style.

I’m sure you’ve heard the study about retaining information more if it is handwritten. So, while you are organizing class notes, you can kill two birds with one stone and also study by handwriting them! Not only will this save time for when you do sit down to study for your final, but it will also keep all of your notes organized in one place.

via Pixabay

Summarize

At the end or beginning of each category, summarize what the topic and notes are about. This should be two or three sentences that will remind you of what the section is about and what you will be reviewing when you look it over.

This is a great trick, especially if you have a lot of notes for one class or multiple classes. If you are struggling with a certain topic in a class, then you will know which set of notes you should go to and review instead of reading through all of them to find what you are looking for.

Keep notes together

Now that you have organized your class notes and spent all of this time finding them, categorizing, handwriting them, and adding a summary to each category, keep them all in once place! Part of being a college student is learning how to be extremely organized, which means keeping important documents (such as class notes) together in one place.

This can be a notebook, a binder, or if you don’t take our advice of handwriting your notes, a folder or document on your computer. This makes studying easier and you will feel more confident and put together.

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