Remembering the Concepts

I learned how to study in college. I actually had to take a specialized summer course on how to become a good student. I'm sure some of you can relate to the vast difference between high school and college. For me, however, there was a definite issue with how information went into my brain.

Enter St. Norbert College's summer study program. They taught me how to take notes, piece together concepts and what to study. Thankfully, I was eager to learn. When you have ADD, you tend to either be 3 things - scattered, not interested, or hyper-focused. Thankfully, I was the latter of the three, which made it easy to do the work asked of me. I really wanted this.

Now, when I take notes, I know what I need to focus on. I highlight and underline. Take side notes and try to only paste the key concepts I need to keep fresh in my mind to move ahead. My notes tend to look like this:

I can't tell you the value of taking the time to make proper notes so that you just open up a page and go, "Aha! I remember that concept now!" Makes the whole study thing breeze by. 

I also use whatever tools I can to make concepts stick with me. I may lose where they are in the book, and that's very frustrating. So, I will make cheat sheets, like the one I made here using Canva.com

I know it's not the prettiest thing, but it helps me remember the concepts. I really didn't want to spend hours making it "pretty". But now I've printed it out and I can refer to it anytime I need it. 

There's a lot to be said for creative note taking. Spending time doing it right the first time saves you a lot of time, confusion, and aggravation in the long run. 

Now that I have taken some great notes, it's time to get practicing! 

Amy