Take Notes, Hamber

Photo Credit: Notion

Note-taking is one of the many skills every student needs in order to survive and excel high school. Here are some tips and tricks shared by your fellow Hamberites!

“Notion has a lot of visual appeal and allows you to plan your assignments easier for better time management,” explained Zoe Erickson (12), who has been using the app for over two years.

Farah Berkson (8) agreed, saying that “when your notes look better, it’s easier to remember them.” Notion has a wide variety of features, including a built-in AI to help optimize your notes and an automatic assignment-sorting function to prioritize what needs to be done first.

Many students also recommend using Apple’s Notes app for quick and easy note-taking. Ryan Chu (8) said Notes is a “good app overall and is easy-to-use, but doesn’t have [many] different styles and options.” 

Notes is the go-to for anything that you want to jot down quickly, like a page number for a book, since creating a note doesn’t require anything except the click of a button. Most computers and mobile devices have some form of a Notes app, making it a very accessible option when you need to get something down quickly. 

Google Docs is another popular recommendation, and was highly suggested by Eloise Ramslie (12). She said she uses it for “convenience and accessibility,” and it’s easy to customize your notes, with the ability to change things like page colour and page margins. Notes taken in Google Docs are also easily shareable and manageable through Google Drive, for students who want to keep all their files organized in a simple space online. 

Knowing where to put your notes is one thing; but what else can you do to take more effective notes?

“You need to use abbreviations,” said Mr. G. Scaglione (Social Studies). “It helps with efficiency as long as you remember what teachers mean.” It can be difficult to write every single thing a teacher says down, so short form notes are helpful — as long as you’re still listening!

Categorizing information into sections is also a helpful habit while note taking. “I can find a certain topic easily instead of having to scan through entire pages of notes for one small bit of information,” said Karlyne Chai (8).

Other students, like Ras Rascher (12), suggest dedicating your undivided attention to your notes. “In order to take better notes, I avoid using my phone and move to a quiet space free from distractions.”