Plug-Ins to Keep Your Notes In Mind

For this week of classes, as a note-taking strategy, I decided to use Plug-In Notes. It's a very SIMPLE but yet very EFFECTIVE strategy that requires nearly no adjustment in regular not-taking techniques. The way it works is you take your in-class notes but after each section or topic, just skip five to six lines before beginning notes for the next section or topic. After class you go back to your notes and create a graphic organizer or some other illustration in the gaps, of the above notes taken. Based on the notes and illustrations a set of five to ten questions is made as a test or review for the end of the week when you return to your notes to answer these questions.

I used PLUG-IN NOTES in my Calc 3 and Linear Algebra classes and I found them to be effective as they forced me not to just go back to read through my notes, but to do so thoroughly. I also helped in the fact that the strategy didn't just end once the plug-ins were done, but continued as I had to go back at the end of the week to answers question based on my plug-ins as another review of the week's notes and topics. Often times I'll say that I'll go back to my notes after class or later but it won't end up happening but seeing the gaps in my notes remind me or entice me to do so.

As far as my personal experience with the plug-ins this week, I feel like it worked better with Linear algebra as compared to with Calc; I feel like it's because of the way the teachers present the material. Linear Algebra has a lot more written notes in terms of sentences and terms while Calc is more equation based and taught and learned by using a large amount of examples, seeing it in practice. My Linear algebra teaches with a lot of explanation and comparison so using a strategy like plug-ins to write out questions and answers and graphic organizers was convenient.

On a positive note of the overall strategy as a whole, it definitely is a useful one. Something I found helpful was the emphasis of the use of an illustration as a plug-in because it keeps is simple and more attractive and not bland when going back to review the notes, it's easier to see the information and quickly take it in. Plug-ins definitely seem to have fallen into the list of favorite strategies; despite the fact that it didn't work as well with Calc, but that wasn't much different than what I expected. It's a SHORT AND SIMPLE strategy that gets the job done and gets the job done effectively, making the process of review that much easier.