Taking Notes

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My history teacher insists that I take notes on things that I read.

She also wants me to do it in one of the billion ways she was taught how in teaching school. [Which does not tell teachers how to deal with aspies.]

She's also insisting that we can't just reread the chapter because "it will take too long."

Does she not realize that some of us can read the whole thirty-page packet in less than thirty minutes?

Does anyone here actually think that taking notes in a graphic organizer is useful?

Personally, this year I'm only taking notes when reading for AP physics. I have a good enough memory that I can just absorb everything I read from, for instance, my AP gov/pol class (The teacher insists that we write chapter summaries anyway, which I hate), but for physics the book teaches mathematical concepts that I'll have to apply, and it's easier to take notes in order to get a feel for the processes.

I never had anyone who made us take notes from textbooks, but I had a number of teachers who made you take notes on their lectures. I could always remember everything the first time and never studied, or even knew how to study, so notes weren't useful for me. Rather, I would be unable to remember the contents of the lecture if I had to take notes, because I'd be thinking about what I should write down instead of what they're saying. I never actually used the notes, so it was purely harmful.

I've gotten better at taking notes recently. I sort of "accept" that there are going to be some doodles/irrelevant humor/asides in them. I number my items, with integers being serious notes and non-integers being the "crap" that has ended up in my notebook instead of notes in the past. Sometimes humor gets injected into the serious notes, and sometimes the "crap" is tangentially related to the lecture. Basically, I keep it just "fun" enough to stay awake in class and get through the "boring" parts of the lecture, and end up taking more useful notes than I would trying to be 100% serious, and ending up bored out of my mind and falling asleep, saying "screw it" and making nothing but doodles, or simply not using the notebook at all.

Teachers have a balancing act. For every one student who can do ok without taking notes, there are 5 who can't.

My teacher made a deal with everyone in AP US History in junior year:

"Notes are optional for the first week but if you don't score an A, notes are required. As long as you make A's on your tests, notes are not required."

Everyone scored a C on their first test. I had a 98.

Even when I didn't score A's she wouldn't mind if I didn't take notes. She made me have a paper and pen out during notes but she would never check them. She knew I loved history enough to where I'd read the textbook at home and unconditionally listen to her lectures. I never scored less than a high B on my tests.

I wish all teachers were like her.

Best teacher I ever had.

I know this isn't what you want to hear but: Just take the notes.

Every history lesson I have I take notes and highlight any loose sheets or readings we are given by the teacher.
Before an exam, I spend an hour going over all my notes and highlighting.
Result from exams = A+ without having to study.

It's your choice, do extra hours of study throughout the term and cram before the exams or simply take the notes in class.
I know which one I would rather, because if I have to sit through a class to start with then I would rather get something out of it than have to do 6 make up study hours in my own time every week.

It's proven that even for Aspies, that we learn better and more by being actively engaged in learning in multiple ways, regardless of how you learn best, you take in more by combining learning styles.
Which is the point of notetaking as well as you will have easy access to information set out in a concise manner for your exams.

It's also an essential skill that you will need for university.
While you can pass high school and first year uni without needing to take notes, it gets more difficult after that.
It primes your brain to filter, select and focus only on the relevant information which is the skill I see lacking for most first year university students that leads to them struggling.

I have a neuro disease where I usually cannot write and listen at the same time anymore. So I don't take notes either. I've noticed that most of the notes that other people take are pretty useless. They're writing down exactly what the professor says. Which is not necessarily the "answer". Maybe there's a different "answer".

Why don't you just talk to this teacher and tell her that you can remember most of the things she says and tell her what she said in class earlier, thereby proving it to her? Like not in a snotty way, just like in a "what do you want me to do" way? I'll bet she won't really want to you just go through the motions if she knows you're actually remembering it. Because that's just pretending you don't remember when you clearly do, and that's stupid.

I came to a point in my undergrad years where I realized that I could either do what the professors wanted and expected (and get an A+) or I could do what *I* wanted and what was an actual stretch for *ME* and just deal with the consequences. Sometimes I still got an A+, a couple times I got a B, but mostly I got an A or an A-. I felt much better knowing I wasn't just doing what was expected. And obviously I ended up with almost the same grades anyway.

Depending on how quickly you write, you could just write the whole text out. I have a friend (is it NT you call them? Non-Aspergers anyway) who writes really fast, and so if a teacher complains then she just writes out the whole thing. Personally, I cant listen and take notes at the same time, or read and make notes. My "notes" always have to be written in full, so I end up writing out the whole text, taking twice as long as anyone else as I take so long writing anything. Hope this helps, or at least makes sense!!

I personally think it's insulting for teachers/professors to FORCE you to take notes on reading. I have a photographic memory and retain what I read for years and years. I have never needed to take notes on what I read, and I know I never will have to do so. In my tenth grade International Studies class, we HAD to take reading notes. They were graded assignments. At the end of every semester, we had to hand in all of our reading notes for all of the chapters taught that semester. I was not shy to voice my opposition about having to do this pointless assignment. I made it pretty clear to my teacher that I did ALL of the reading notes the night before they were due, weeks after I had already gotten an "A" on the test for that unit. And I barely even used my book to make these last-minute reading notes. I mostly did them from memory.

I think it's great for teachers to encourage taking reading notes, because I do think that is how most people remember information out of textbooks. But I think it is wrong to make reading notes a requirement. Why should the teacher care if you don't want to take notes? If you don't need to, why bother? And if you DO need to take notes to learn but choose not to, you're only hurting yourself and your GPA.

I strongly disagree that taking reading notes is ALWAYS essential for success in college. I graduated college with honors... and I never took reading notes. How I review for tests is flipping through the book chapter again and scanning through all of the pages that I already have committed to memory (just as a re-refresher). Again, I realize I'm not typical, but just because reading notes help MOST people doesn't mean that it's necessary for ALL students to do well.

I don't take notes, I draw. I don't know how it works, I just draw, and I can remember things a whole lot easier afterward. If I just watch the lecture or take notes, I forget.

I wasn't saying it's always essential for college - I was saying that it primes your brian to filter, select and focus only on the relevant information - this skill is mostly a learnt skill for the majoirty of people and it s also the reason why I see most kids fail college, because they never learned to do it.

I'm like you - photographic memory for reading so I don't need to take notes - but it makes it much easier for revision when 120 pages of textbook and readings is consended into 6 pages of notes and that's all I have to remember.

Note taking should not be word for word - you are only supposed to take the revlevant points (hence how you learn to select relevant information) - in the case of history - background, causes, consequences, influencial and critical factors.

There are some of us who don't need notes (myself included), but we are the minority. Even if we are the minority, it doesn't always mean you have completely mastered filtering and selecting relevant information because they are two different skill sets, which is why taking notes is a good idea for the majority of people.

I never took notes and I never studied so as long as you can remember everything do what you want