hi. i love when people ask about these kinds of things because i have a really bad organisation problem but at least i get to share my tips. for all my classes, i will be handwriting, because muscle memory and just general handwriting practice. but how i do it for each subject is slightly different.
business management / psychology
for these two subjects, i’m handwriting my notes but i’m doing this using my apple pencil and ipad (i know, i’m one of those people). but there’s a valid explanation. as they are heavy content subjects, i’m focusing on the amount of paper i use, considering the amount of practice exams i’ll be printing this year. also, i find that handwriting it on an ipad means i can easily reshuffle notes while gaining that muscle memory. this is where it becomes extremely contradictory. i have exercise books to complete practice questions, specifically those from checkpoints. but practice question books can be used for any kind of practice questions. i also do my summary notes here, and i’ll just print them off as the year goes on.
english
for english, i’m all for the pen and paper kind-of note taking. i’d rather not hand write on my ipad because i like teachers to give feedback, and that can become difficult using an ipad and apple pencil. so i have two kind of exercise books - one for class notes, the other for practice writing. that can be paragraphs, topic sentences, or whole essays, i put it all in that book - a habit i picked up last year and stuck.
general math
for general, i also do everything in exercise books. i wanted to do this for general because i like to hand write everything in my bound reference, meaning i can easily transfer stuff. i have one exercise book for textbook questions, and the other is my bound reference. i work on the bound gradually throughout the year and don’t leave it 3 days before the exam. in my bound reference, i have notes with examples from past exams and a mistake bank (where practice exam errors that were not stupid go).
some other stuff you mentioned…
you mentioned the following of syllabus (i’m going to call them study design because that’s what vcaa calls them). using the study design is good for those really content heavy subjects. for example, using it for psychology to make sure that all your summary notes are examinable and you don’t revise anything unnecessary. however, using it for general math might not be the best of ideas, because textbooks tend to only contain examinable content (depending on which textbook). another thing you mentioned is taking notes a week in advance. you need to consider that year 12 is a really fast moving year, and trying to get ahead can be quite difficult, especially taking time to make notes because you need to relax too. what i try to do is just read the content before class, and sure, make a few minor notes, but not as you would in class. by reading before class, you have an understanding beforehand, you can prepare questions and therefore have a better opportunity to develop in depth notes, something that might be harder when solely taking notes before class. also, rewriting notes after school is a huge waste of time. as a perfectionist, it hurts me to say this, but i learnt that it isn’t the end of the world if you’re notes look ugly. if you want to add further notes to what you have, use sticky notes and paste it onto the page, but if you’re typing that would be a lot easier. but remember, rewriting notes after school takes time. if you do 4 or 5 subjects, that’s a fair amount of time rewriting, and time should really be put aside for homework and study and also relaxing. i know this is going on forever but i love to talk, and you mentioned the use of binders. i have two for each subject. one for class resources (teacher worksheets, etc.) and the other for practice sacs and exams. that’s just an organisational thing that means your folders won’t become a metre thick with a combination of resources.
apologies for this being super long, but as i said, i love to talk about organisation, so feel free to reply if you want to talk about organisation (never said that before, doubt that i will again T-T).
