Note-taking Tips for the Visual Learner

Fun, colorful - and guaranteed to help your grades.

If you’re a visual learner, you can really have some fun with your class notes. Try these tips for creating notes that are mini works of art—and help you learn. 1. Use different colors of ink for different kinds of information. For example, if you’re taking a philosophy class and learning about several great thinkers, assign each one a different color. You’ll find that you remember the concepts much more easily, and you won’t confuse the philosophers with one another. Studying languages? Try using one color for feminine words and another for masculine words. 2. Use different colors of paper for each class. You might choose green for biology, for example, and pink for that English class on romantic poetry. You can even color-match your folders and index cards. Soon, the instant you see green you’ll start thinking about cell membranes. 3. Sometimes, as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. Use concept maps and diagrams, as well as words, to record class lectures. Your college skills center can give you information on some mapping formats, and you can make up your own as well. It doesn’t matter if no one else can read your concept maps, as long as they make sense to you.