Now the question arises: How to make notes that are understandable and don’t take much of your preparation time?
Below given are the tips compiled after analysing different note making
patterns followed by the medical PG toppers.
1. Copy a neat small summary with headings.
Avoid copying a mass of information. Small summary saves a lot of time
but this summary should have all the important information required about the
topic.
2. Have a hot word column:
Keywords or hot words are a very concise summary that helps improve your
memory. These hot words also help you prepare the topic better. Make it a habit
to find keywords for all important points.
3. Do not use skeleton prose:
This is the usual way of taking notes with headings, subheadings and
bullets. This method is everywhere like text books and guides. This is not good
for personal notes as it becomes ‘copy and paste’. It doesn’t organise contents
for your memory with meaning. Also keep this in mind that you avoid ‘copy and
paste’ at all times.
4. Summary:
Make sure that you have hot word column on the left, points on the right
and a box for summary at the bottom. Personalise the summary with your
own words. This reworded summary of the topic will help you consume better
during revision.
5. Your own words:
When you use your own words it encourages active thinking, better
understanding and high retention which is most important for retaining things.
So read and understand a topic and then try explaining it in your own words in
your notes, you may also write your mother tongue in between.
6. Try and make questions:
Try and make hot words and questions from a topic. Later, create a
summary. Then try to answer the questions. This is the most effective revision
method known. These questions also play a similar part in better learning.
7. Use abbreviations and symbols:
Using abbreviations helps to keep the notes brief. Learn more and more
abbreviations to bring down the time elapsed.
8. Organising notes:
Use separate notebooks for each subject. E.g. Anatomy, Microbiology,
Anaesthesia etc. Or use File dividers to separate topics.
9. Revise:
This is a key goal of note taking. Sometimes medics take notes to ‘learn
later’. This is procrastination and it often doesn’t happen. Hence you have to
have time for your revision. There is no compromise on this. It is easier to
score high with this approach.
You need at least 3 revisions to get a good rank in PG entrance exams.
And to make those revisions effective and fast you need high yield notes.
If you use these tips during preparation, they'll prove to be hugely
beneficial while revising.
Also read:
Best Wishes!!
No comments:
Post a Comment