Taking notes in a Ghanaian lecture hall is one of the most extreme sports that you can take part in as a student. If you’re the type of person who always goes to sit in the back of the lecture hall then you’ve already lost half of the battle. If you also happen to be the type who thinks that you don’t need lecture notes and that you can get by just by using the lecture slides then you’ve lost the other half of the battle. Lecture notes can be the difference between passing a course or finding yourself breaking into a cold sweat in a ventilated exam room.
Sit In Front
If you sit in front when you’re in a Ghanaian lecture hall, you’re going to get stereotyped as a ‘shark,’ and because of that people who are ‘cool’ always go and sit in the back. If you’re sitting in the back though it’s usually harder to hear the things that the lecturer is saying and you literally can’t write what you can’t hear.
Make A Section For Things That Will Come On Your Exams
The first hack for taking notes in a Ghanaian exam hall is making a section for things that are likely to come on your exam. Lecturers will usually drop hints about what’s coming on tests, IAs and even exams. It’s usually a good idea to have a section in your notes for areas that are going to come on exams. That way when you’re studying later, you know exactly what things you want to be focusing on.
Rewrite Your Notes
Some lectures speed through their lessons and that makes it hard to take lecture notes that make sense when you’re reading them. A good way to make sure that you’re taking good notes is to rewrite your notes after each class. You can structure things better and put your notes together in a way that actually makes sense. Plus, there’s the added benefit that rewriting your notes makes you that much more likely to remember their contents later.
Record Your Lectures
If you simply can’t keep up with the speed at which your lecturer is going during class, then it’s a good idea to get a recorder app on your phone and record your lectures. It’s going to be more work getting those recorded notes onto paper later but if you can’t keep up with the writing in class then this is your next best option.
Compare Notes After Class
It’s normal to miss entire sections during class with a Ghanaian lecture. If you realize that you have holes in your notes after class, the last thing that you want is to leave them for too long. Try as much as possible to get a course mate’s notes immediately after class to fill in the blank’s that you have in yours.
Read Before Class
Most lecturers give out required reading that students are supposed to do before they show up to class. However, we usually don’t do the reading because, well, lecturers don’t usually check to find out if you read or not. But the thing is that reading before class can make you more familiar with what you’re reading on before class and allow you to take much better notes.
Source: Kuulpeeps.com
