Learn How to Take Good Notes in Nursing School

There is no way you can read through a whole textbook word for word, unless of course you have ample time on your hands. Even I, as an instructor, can understand that. This is why it is so crucial to learn how to take good notes and I’m going to teach you how to do it! Below I am sharing five tips & strategies on how to take good notes and make sure you focus on important information and how to identify material that could be on the exam. This is coming from a professor who has created exams in the past. Where do I get my questions from? What do I suggest and recommend students study from? You might want to read below to find out more. Let’s jump right into it!

Tip #1: Go to class and take good notes during lectures.

Listen to your professors. Many times they mention things that are not on the power-point but are in the book and most times these points are important to know and WILL be on the test. A good professor gives you the information that is on the power-point. A GREAT professor elaborates for better understanding and doesn’t just read the power-point.

The problem is, how do you know what is important?

During lecture: 

As mentioned above, a professor will state when something is important to know or remember. WRITE THAT DOWN! If they are going over something repeatedly, WRITE THAT DOWN! There is a reason why they have mentioned something more than once, it is because it’s important and might be on the test. No need to write the same thing multiple times on paper. One time is enough. Just RECOGNIZE the fact that if he/she keeps repeating it is important. 

Placing words like *know this* after a sentence you just wrote will help you remember later on that the professor said to KNOW THIS. You will focus more on this material when studying because you know if you wrote that it’s because at that very moment the professor said this information was important to know. 

Your professors might also add different scenarios or experiences they have had as healthcare providers. No need to write each scenario out or jot down too many examples but writing one or two examples of a subject content is key in relating the information to a real-life experience. This will help you understand later on when studying by bringing that subject content to life. 

Tip #2: Skim through the textbook.

There is just far too much information in your assigned readings and all of it seems so important. Am I right?! The first step before taking a deep dive into your assigned chapters is to skim through them first. 

How to skim through a chapter in your textbook but obtain necessary information for note taking: 

• Always look at tables, pictures, figures, illustrations because professors love to get questions from those areas. I have included a picture of these areas as examples. 
• Read highlighted/bolded vocabulary.
• Review study questions and summary points at end of chapter. 
• Examples are always important to write down when note taking. Not only do they help you understand but can be used in exams as questions. 
• Repeated information is repeated for a reason. When you see different areas going over the same content consider it important. 

Tip# 3: After skimming, concentrate on essential material in textbook.

Once you have briefly skimmed over the chapter you can go back to certain topics you know will be on your test based on rubrics or what your professor has told you. Go over those topics in more detail – read the chapter. If you don’t understand a word, look it up! This will help you better understand the material. If you are keeping the book, you can write on the margin of the paragraphs or if you are planning to return/re-sell a book, you can use a post it and stick it on.

I find highlighting the important parts of the chapter really helps. Those areas that explain in detail the pathophysiology, clinical manifestations, interventions are highlightable items. All of that is ALWAYS important and serves as GREAT material for an exam question. In the textbook, you can highlight with one color what you find important, then highlight what the instructor went over with another color. You can also add comments of things the professor said in the margins.

Here’s that million-dollar question again, how do you know what is important?

In textbook: 

Explanations or details that are elaborated on, especially material that include examples are usually important to jot down . Include those examples in your notes so you can understand the material and apply it to a scenario. However, do not keep is as lengthy as the textbook. This is key in note taking. You want to keep it short and sweet in a way you can remember. 

• Using acronyms can also help as long as you remember what your acronym means. (e.g., the famous naughty but catchy cranial nerve acronym.OOOTTAFAGVSH = Oh, Oh, Oh, to touch and feel a girls vagina, so hot.) It not only helps you remember the order of the cranial nerves 1-12 but the first letter of each name. Smart, right?
• Making up songs or phrases are also creative ways to remember content, as well. 

Tip #4: Review your notes within 24 hours.

After class, always review your notes within 24 hours. Academic skill centers suggest reviewing these notes within 24 hours can increase learning capacity. 

When writing notes in class, they usually tend to be a bit messy since you are writing quickly and trying to capture critical information. When you review them within that 24 hour period I suggest re-writing them as well. While you are re-writing them you can compare your notes to textbook information and add those textbook notes to the specific topic areas. 

Tip #5: Time to re-write your notes using different colors. 

Use different colors when re-writing your final draft of notes. There are 3 different sources of information when writing your notes and they should all be in different colors. This helps you reference where you got the material from. 

• What you gathered from lecture – different color (majority of info will be this color)
• What instructor says is important – different color or highlighted. Include *KNOW THIS*
• What is written in textbook – different color

If you haven’t had time to look through the book you can rewrite your notes and leave spaces in between different topics. This is to leave room for any notes you need to add from the book. 

When re-writing your notes, try to re-write in a way that YOU understand. This is key for good note taking. Re-write textbook explanations in your own words so that you can understand what it means. 

For example: if the textbook says: 

“Hirschprungs disease, or aganglionic megacolon, occurs when there is an absence of ganglionic innervation to the muscle of a segment of the bowel.”

Leifer, G. (2015). Introduction to maternity & pediatric nursing (7th ed.). St. Louis, Mo.: Elsevier/Saunders.,

What to do: First, look up any key terms that you may not know. This is essential in being able to paraphrase to what YOU can understand. Let’s look up innervation and ganglionic. 

Innervation= supply an organ or body part with nerves

Ganglionic = group of neuron cells in the peripheral system

Now that we know this, you can write:

“Hirschsprungs Disease is when there is an absence of nerve cell supply in a part of the bowels.” 

OR

“Hirschsprungs disease is when there are ganglionic nerve cells missing from a certain section of the bowels” 

This makes it easier for you to remember and understand when studying. 

I really hope these tips and strategies help you improve your note taking skills from lecture and from the textbook. They were definitely techniques I used that taught me how to take good notes as a student. I have also used these techniques when creating exam questions as a Professor.

If you have any comments or tips that you can add to this list, please feel free to comment and share your note taking tips below! This is a space for learning and would love to hear what has worked for you.

‘till next time, 

The RN Educator