Here are three rules of thumb that I use while taking notes:

• Write down everything
  • Even the things that seem trivial but have never occurred to you.
• Highlight the important parts
• Seek to comprehend not memorize

Why they are useful:

• Memory recall: The first and third points help with this immensely. When writing things down you are creating multiple ways to recall information. Also by writing and comprehending you are actually processing the information. This even more helps in remembering the information later on.
• Comprehension allows you to apply the information to things that are not the same as the way it was originally presented.
• Highlighting helps a lot because then certain information pops out more than others in your notes. This helps you see in a single glance what is more important than others
  • However don’t get carried away. Highlighting is only effective if 10% or less is highlighted. One way to work around this is to use multiple colors for different kinds of information.

1337 5P33K is a tip of the week series written by people who were once in your shoes. Feel free to post a comment and if you have a question email Brandi Adams at bkadams@cs.umd.edu and she and I will do our best to find the answer.