Note Taking Tips For Teens

Hi you guys! Since we’re all learning from home for now, and even those of us not in school are taking the time to learn new things right now, I thought I’d share my favorite note taking tips! The way you take notes will change depending on the class you’re taking, but I’ve found that there are a few techniques that help make you notes cute and easy to study.

Note Taking Tips For Teens

Check out my how to bullet journal series, too!

Just in case you’re not a stationery lover like I am, I’m going to start by sharing some of my favorite supplies for taking notes.

A notebook, of course. The one I’m using here isn’t my favorite, as I prefer dotted notebooks. However, almost everyone uses lined notebooks so that’s what I decided to work with today. I always have a straight edge and tape style white out on hand, as I take all my notes in pen. For writing I like using a variety of gel and ballpoint pens, as well as Flair felt tips. PaperMate is definitely one of my favorite brands for pens, due to the pigmentation and color choice. I use ballpoint if I know I’m going to be highlighting a lot, as it doesn’t smear like gel will. For highlighters I love the Zebra Mildliners because they double as fine tipped markers, and the Pilot Frixion Highlighters because they are erasable!

Let’s talk about rough notes vs finished notes. Please, don’t try and take super pretty instagram worthy notes in class or during your initial study session. You will miss things while trying to make it look pretty. One of the best ways to study is to recopy your notes. It’s the method I used all through middle and high school that helped me graduate the the top 10 of my class. So, while you’re in class (or studying material for the first time) take messy notes. Just get the information down. Highlight any important parts while you go, but don’t worry about making it cute.

When you’re ready to go over the material again (or you get done with the class) now is the time to rewrite your notes. First, grab a pen of choice and a color palette of highlighters and pens. I start by making a big attention grabbing title, that way I can easily find the information I’m looking for while I’m flipping through my notebook.

I also include the lesson or page numbers so I can refer back to the original material. You can see in the last photo the difference between handwriting during rough notes and finished notes. I write neater and slower so it’s easier to read!

Here I’m studying a language, so the note layout is slightly different than what you may need for science or math, but you can use a lot of the same systems. I’m comparing two similar tenses, so I’m using two different highlighters. That way I can highlight every phrase with the different tenses the same color.

When I have a long paragraph to explain a concept, I start by marking out how wide I want the paragraph to go with a highlighter. Then I write out the paragraph and draw the rest of the box around it. This helps separate different note sections and helps keep things from looking like big text blocks. I also keep my white out close by so I can fix any mistakes.

Tables are a great way to organize information, whether you’re comparing things, doing definitions, or copying tables that your teacher provided. This is why I always have a straight edge in my pencil case. I start by drawing the top of the table and the vertical lines, and I don’t draw the ending horizontal lines until I’m done writing the information in. This way you don’t run out of room! I also like using a combo of highlighting, underlining, and bullets or numbering to help organize information.

My notes often span several pages per lesson, so I always write -over- or -next-, or you can even write something like Pg. 1/3 to help note at the bottom corner that you have several pages of notes for this lesson. If I have an explanatory paragraph for a single sentence or a definition I’ll also underline the sentence, and then indent the paragraph and draw a vertical line down the left hand side to make it clear that it’s related to the sentence.

You can also add artistic details to bring attention and differentiate parts of your notes. Like horizontal lines on either side of a section title.

I also like to use dots, and highlighter lines as separators. Whatever works for you to help you be able to focus on one part of your notes at a time. Plus, if you’re notes are cute you’re more likely to study, and can even start a study gram!

I hope you all enjoy these note taking tips, and that they help making studying at home easier and more fun!