Chapter 3: Ordinary Note Taking

too much and no system

A lot of people are dissatisfied with their note taking. They realize that they take down too many words, which in turn makes it difficult to get an overview. They find it difficult to sort the essential facts from a lecture, a meeting or a book. Very few have had a satisfactory training in effective study skills and note taking.

Let s follow a student who has just arrived in the first term at university.

The professor drew down his specs and raised his hand with a reserved movement. It was the gesture of a conductor

assembling the orchestra. Forty-two pencils were lifted over 42 note pads. He started to talk and everyone folded over their note pads and wrote as quickly as they could.

No one could take down in shorthand but they all tried their best to do some speedwriting. Forty-one male students and one female tried to take down as many notes as they could of what one of the foremost orators of their age was saying.

They wrote as many words as they could, but it was not nearly enough. The words were chasing each other, the students were left behind and had to take a jump every now and then to catch up. To understand the meaning of what they heard and to write it down at the same time, was simply impossible , nothing stayed, it was like raking long straw lengthways. They did not know what they wrote and when they saw what they had written down, they got startled and changed their tactics. They started to listen more coherently and took down brief summaries. But while they were writing, the lecture went on and when they were ready to listen again, the thread was broken and the next summary was hanging on its own. However they tried it, it was a patched job.

An author who had just learned how to use learning maps put a flip chart in his study. When he was working on a new book he started by making a draft of the whole book. Then he tore down that sheet and put it up somewhere else in the room. After that he made a new draft of each chapter.

Before he started to use learning maps he had had all these thoughts and ideas in his head, unstructured and unfinished . The writing process was associated with a lot of pain and negative feelings, for the author as well as for people around him.

By using learning maps he could now write down ideas and sudden flashes, without having to think of where to put them. It was always possible to change and restructure at any stage of the process. When he began writing he could do it without feeling any pressure or stress. He also noticed that he gained a lot of time as everything was so well structured and thought through when he started.

Another man, a scientist, who now and then gave open lectures to various groups of people, normally wrote down his full manuscript “ every sentence of it! During the lectures he would read the manuscript word by word to the audience. He was not pleased with this procedure, as he thought his lectures were a bit ˜dry and impersonal (which his audiences would agree with!).

When he learned to use learning maps he started by making a rough draft in the form of a mind map. He tried to put himself in the place of the listener: ˜What do I want to know about this subject? By putting a number of such questions to himself he found more and more aspects of his subject.

One of the advantages of using learning maps is the ability to jump from one part of it to another, giving your thoughts a free flow.

The first time he tried the new technique he still wanted to write down his full manuscript in a linear form ˜just in case , but he soon found that step unnecessary. So he started to use a learning map instead, redoing it to make it clearer, bigger and better structured, and he also used colours, symbols, pictures and three-dimensional illustrations. When he wanted to include facts in the form of graphs or charts he put them in the margin, or just kept them ready for quotation on another sheet of paper.

Both he and his audiences noticed the difference. His lectures became more vivid and interesting and he kept eye contact with the audience. All he had to do was to glance quickly at the learning map now and then to see if he had forgotten anything or to check what was next on the list.

These examples will do so far. What are your own motives for using learning maps, or rather “ what motives do you have for not using maps?

Let this question stay in your head unanswered while you get more acquainted with the technique. When you learn and start practising learning maps you will discover the many advantages and areas of application.

Learning maps will help you to develop your creative as well as your analytical and logical abilities . You will learn how to find a structure and build connections between the various parts . It is important that you find your own personal style. No single learning map resembles another, even if two people make learning maps from the same meeting or text. The main thing is that your learning map can be used for the purpose you intended. It is always the result that counts.