Notes in the Margin That Actually Help

10 minutes ago

2 min read

As the school year reaches its mid-semester 1 stretch, you've likely taken your fair share of notes. And, while some classes may only require a few bullet points here and there to get the content down, others are significantly more intense, and it may feel like not even pages of notes can suffice. If that's the case, then extra notes might be useful...aka, notes in the margin. This system is both easy and functional, and we'll show you how it works ⬇️

To know right now

The first of three groupings of marginal annotations is the collection of symbols that indicate something you already know or should know right now. This collection includes:

Asterisk (*) - key ideas
- Marks the most significant ideas, concepts, themes, or a
- guments
Exclamation mark (!) - importance
- Highlights something surprising, powerful, or worth remembering, like a statistic or line of rhetoric
Underline (___) - essence
- Underline names, dates, or keywords

To look back on later

The next group features markings that remind you to seek clarification or complete an action later. These are:

Question mark (?) - questions
- Used for anything you're confused about and want to come back to
Brackets ( [ ] ) - summary
- Surround phrases or paragraphs with brackets and then summarize that content in the margin
Reverse Arrow (🔄) - reread or review
- Flag something to revisit it again

To spend time on

The final group of symbols remind you to spend a little extra time learning the content. This collection includes:

Straight Arrow (→) - connection
- Shows how this links to something you already know (add that other piece of knowledge in the margin)
Box (◻) - definition
- Indicates that a term or concept needs a definition
Star (☆) - example
- A useful detail, story, or illustration to remember

Using even just a few of these symbols can make note taking and studying easier. By saving yourself from writing everything down immediately, you can focus your attention in class on listening, and come back for the other pieces later. And, if you liked this, check out our other posts below or in the Blog page.