1. Invest in black pens! It’s fun to make your notes colorful, but writing information in black ink will make your notes easier to read. Some of my personal favorites include:
Paper Mate Inkjoy pens
Paper Mate Flair pens
Pilot G2 Gel Roller pens
EnerGel RTX Liquid Gel Pen
Zebra fountain pens
2. Use graph paper or dot paper! I find it so much easier to keep columns and lists organized when I use these. You can get packs of graph paper, graph paper notebooks, bullet journals, or anything else you find.
3. Be careful with what materials you use! I’ve learned that some markers, highlighters, and even pens can bleed through a bit, making it harder to read the words on the back of the page. Some even bleed through the page completely onto the surface you’re writing on, so be careful!
4. Stick to a color scheme! Most people find it hard to read notes if there’re a lot of different colors on your page, kind of defeating the purpose of taking notes. Try using…
Monochromatic colors-different shades of a single color
Complementary colors-colors across from each other on the color wheel
Contrasting colors-light and dark colors
Warm colors or cool colors
5. Don’t buy supplies just because they’re popular! Most craft or art stores have paper pads to test utensils on, use them!! Pens, markers, highlights...all write and feel differently, so try before you buy. I recommend:
Tombows
Mildliners highlighters
Zebra Metallic Brush Pen
Stabilo Boss highlighters
Crayola Erasable highlighters
Uniball Gel Pens
6. Don’t highlight everything! I personally highlight titles, subtitles, and vocabulary words. You can also highlight dates, quotes, and other important information.
7. Summarize, summarize, summarize! Writing word for word will make your notes super long and boring to read over. Summarizing in your own words will help you better understand and learn the material.
8. Don’t take notes physically on your textbook! I’ve learned that putting a piece of paper on one side of the book, and reading the other is NOT a good idea. You might end up writing off the side of the paper into the book (I’m 1000% guilty) or your utensil might bleed through onto the page or even multiple pages. Those AP textbooks are especially expensive so be careful.
9. Use abbreviations, but not too many! Using abbreviations can save you time and ink when taking notes, but if you use too many or try to abbreviate everything, you may forget what they mean and are supposed to replace. Try using...
btwn-between
bc-because
aftr-after
pres.-president
w/o-without
V. or vs.-versus
tho-though
10. Do what works for you! Pretty Pinterest notes may look tempting to copy, but at the end of the day, they’re your notes and you have to read or study them. Don’t focus on following a style, like cornell or outline, do what comes naturally and stick to it.
--Amelia Cardinale, TAG Member