question

Question for the sciency people--or the people who take their science classes seriously.

There is this thing? Where people taking notes use *multiple colored pens* to do their notes. I'd noticed it before in class when I was younger and did not care and had no study method. I now have a study method--or building one, anyway.

Why is that? What's the pattern on it? As it seems to work, or so a million science students seem to think.

Comments

[giogio.livejournal.com]

People take notes?

[seperis.livejournal.com]

*grins* I guess some people don't need to becuase they retain well? I really don't, so--well, notes.

[loriel-eris.livejournal.com]

Given that in the 4 years I was at Uni, I had a different method for note-taking/organising every year - none of which worked particularly well - I may not be the best person to give advice. However, I'm pretty sure that at one point, I took notes in multi-colours, and I think the logic was something like actual notes/knowledge in one colour, examples in another (proofs, calculations, solving equations, whatever), reading/'homework' in another.

I may also have written equations that were part of the notes in a different colour so they stand out. In fact, most/all of the writing-things-in-different-colours is so that you can see what's what.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. Good method.

*makes note. In black text*

[fragilistikal.livejournal.com]

personally, it's a way to mentally categorize in my mind as well as on paper. Different colors for the overall concept, then regular pen for notes, then a special color again for key ideas within the body of information. when i look over my notes again, i can quickly see the different hierarchy of information, see what i thought was important at the time (like highlighting, but PRETTIER) and it makes the review process go more smoothly.

Of course, I know plenty of people who don't bother with different colors at all. Making pretty color words also helps me concentrate in class.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

*nods* I mostly like the color idea because it will make reviewing easier and also keep me focused--the effort of changing colors to somethign else will make me pay closer attention to what I'm writing, since I can sort of take notes through an etnire class and never really hear a single thing teh professor says. *g*

[fox1013.livejournal.com]

Different colors, different types of pens-- it all helps you quickly find something by sight!

My personal method is to scribble everything down in class, because... info! Coming fast! When I have time to compile it, I will color-code both by topic and by form.

(Hi, I didn't take any science classes but psych; I am not good with specifics here.)

I cannot recommend highly enough the Pilot Liquid Ink Razor Point pens (http://www.amazon.com/Pilot-Liquid-Razor-Extra-Fine-Assorted/dp/B00006IFJQ), which you can get an eight-pen set of at Staples for $10. They write smoothly and cleanly, there's minimum bleed-through, and generally, using those, my writing is more exact than when I'm scribbling with a ballpoint.

If you don't feel like doing the multi-pen thing, there's also the option of going through after taking the notes with a few colors of highlighters and drawing large, emphatic colored arrows. Or doing BOTH.

It's been four years since I last took a class, and I still can't bring myself to get rid of my Latin notes. They're too pretty.

...

*slinks off*

[seperis.livejournal.com]

Oooh higlighting! *makes note*

[sociofemme.livejournal.com]

When I was taking notes, it was usually all I could do to get the information down on the page before the professor moved on, but when I rewrote the notes for studying, I liked using multiple colours--one for formulae, one for basic facts, one for examples, things like that.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

*makes note of this* that makes sense.

[trobadora]

I never used different colours when I took notes. Well, I tried once, and there were many pens, and there was dropping of pens, and... yeah. Not my best strategy! I did highlight notes in different colours when I reviewed, though.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

hee! God, that will probably be me too. *sighs*

[lazar-grrl.livejournal.com]

I never used different colored pens because it took too much time and I kept losing the pens. Instead, I went back while I was reviewing my notes and highlighted the important stuff. Definitions and formulae got one color, examples got another.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

*nods* that makes sense.

[mz-bstone.livejournal.com]

You can do it in English, too. And anthropology. It's simply colour-coding the types of information: key ideas, supporting details,vocabulary. It involved the section of the brain that is visual, as opposed to language. The more of your brain involved in making a memory, the better the memory.

B

[seperis.livejournal.com]

Hmm. True. I wonder how I used to do my notes for English?

I need to go see fi I have those notebooks still.

[logovo.livejournal.com]

I helps me remember, that's why I did stuff like that. I can remember stuff quicker if I have visual clues.

[glammetalkitten.livejournal.com]

It's not just the scientists! I used to colour code my notes for history, especially when I was researching my dissertation. I had whole A4 files full of paper which was covered in highlighter/gel pen/crayon/whatever colour-thing I had to had to code what qote was going to go in what section.

Note taking

[taverymate.livejournal.com]

It's a pattern recognition and multiple association thing, though the pattern/color usage can be highly variable and individualized. Since you are grouping related facts together, theoretically when you retrieve one fact, you tend to retrieve the related items more easily due to multiple associations. And if you can pair the categories with colors that have a built-in connection there is an extra layer of reinforcement, e.g. notes on plant life written in green, notes on the circulatory system written in red.

If you do decide to use a color/category method, I would strongly recommend that you take notes in one color (black/blue ink or pencil) and then color code the notes after reviewing them, using different colored highlighters. Much easier than trying to juggle a variety of colored pens while taking notes - and you're more likely to make accurate and more complete categories with a review than on the fly.

[lyl-devil.livejournal.com]

From someone who majored in genetics, here's how my note taking went (yes, I had a system):

One colour for notes. One colour for diagrams (eg. bacteria, DNA, cell cycles, etc...). One colour for notes/labelling of the diagram (optional).

I found it easier to understand my notes, weeks later, if I knew that the red 'oxygen lost here' referred to the (black) carbon atom circled on the glucose molecule I had drawn, and not the (blue) notes on cellular respiration just below it.

Also, no more than three coloured pens - the one that you're using, while holding the other(s) in the opposite hand (makes it easier to switch out). And this probably goes without saying, but nothing sparkly. Dear God, no sparkly pens!

Yes. Me = geek.

[everagaby.livejournal.com]

My ears perked up at genetics. I did my focus in micro since we didn't have a strong enough undergrad genetics program for me to do just that. What was your thesis on?

[mecurtin.livejournal.com]

For Organic Chemistry class we were required to get four-color clicky-pens (http://www.staples.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/StaplesProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10001&prodCatType=0&catalogId=10051&productId=84588&cmArea=SEARCH) to copy the molecule pictures. Clicking them was the best part of Orgo, for me (I switched to pass/fail second semester to avoid overwhelming shame).

[boniblithe.livejournal.com]

Aha, you took mine :D Biochemistry was the same way.

When I have only a single color pen at my disposal, I have a system of stars, underlines, boxes and arrows to label things which need attention (underline is for the key phrase or concept that sums everything up, boxes are for new section starts, arrows are to remind me to LOOK THERE, and stars are things which require action i.e. "read chapter 4 by friday".

[miss-porcupine.livejournal.com]

Oh, geez. I had a pencil case with regular and colored pencils for all of undergrad (math degree) and have rotated colored inks since seventh grade for social science classes.

For me, it was to make it easier to find stuff later -- with the inks, it was the quickest way to see where one session ended and another began. With my math classes, it was essentially underlining except with colors. I didn't make my definitions orange or my proofs green or anything that complicated. Occasionally, I would break out another color to make a note in the margin, but that was an exception.

[thepouncer.livejournal.com]

I remember I had a 4-in-1 clicky pen that I used to take notes, but I have no idea how I organized the colors. I think it was in line with the categorization mentioned above, but wow. No clue on the mechanics.

I still remember how valance shells work, though, so it might have helped?

[seperis.livejournal.com]

YOU. Yes, I was hoping you'd fall into my clutches with your wistful mentions of surivivng organic chemistry.

....you don't remember? *wide eyes* I wonder if once I'm in class, a natural sort order will occur.

Also, horror. I cannot write legibly anymore. All my notes so far in fundamentals are all tiny caps. I'm so not joking. I tried to do it normally and in cursive and it was utterly unreadable in all ways. Gah.

[nymphaea1.livejournal.com]

I never used colored pens in class because I have trouble sometimes translating aural learning into something I physically write with a pen. I don't think I'm dyslexic precisely, but anytime I write with a pen I often write things, or more commonly letters in a word, backward. I don't do it nearly as much on the computer and I don't do it so much if I am going from written to written, but in class I always had to concentrate too much on writing things down to worry about a system.

I do, however, use colored pens when studying. I have a bad habit of reading journal articles and then getting to the end and realizing I didn't absorb anything beyond the fact that maybe they were studying corn and a fungus might have been involved somewhere. So I have to take notes just to force myself to slow down enough to actually absorb. Then I do use colored pens. When I was studying for my A exam in particular (which is this quite fun experience where you have to stand in front of your graduate committee for three hours while they ask you all manner of questions that may or may not have anything to do with reality and quite possibly don't actually have an answer), I bought an array of pens and then used a new color for each main idea and then a separate color for the bullets to support that idea. I didn't exactly color code, but switching colors sort of mentally forced me to re-focus and then in studying my notes they were visually broken up into more digestible chunks.

[olympia-m.livejournal.com]

I tried doing that with the notes for my dissertation: black for copied text or first drafts, red for bibliographical references, purple or light blue for thoughts and comments upon writing/second reading. But I never managed to do that with my notes when I was going to lectures - always one colour-pen then (although, I did underline or highlight passages whenever I was using photocopies of texts)

[villeinage.livejournal.com]

I am a HUUGE believer in rewriting class notes for flow, logic, graphic organization--BUT AFTER CLASS.

During lecture, I've always been too busy just getting the info down on paper.

Afterwards, reorganize to your heart's content, using whatever colors you wish.

[diamond-raven.livejournal.com]

I am one of those people who is always in awe of the 'color coders'. I tried juggling different colors (and my coffee and my dripping wet umbrella and my notebook) but when the prof is talking at warp speed and the desk is tiny, I failed miserably.

Instead, I use just one pen color, but I still separate important things out. I put large stars beside key concepts, I do a bubble outline around examples, I underline new headings twice and subheadings once. I found this works best for me. I can do it fast enough that I don't have to go back and re-read my notes after every class and once reviewing time comes, I just skip through my bubble outlined and starred items.

Oh, this just brings home the fact that school starts on Tuesday. And I used to think that after the bachelor's, I'd be home free. *sigh*

[diamond-raven.livejournal.com]

And I totally forgot to mention something funny about those color coding people. This isn't useful advice, just funny.

A friend of mine was in oceanography (now in nursing) and she was an avid highligher person. She had seven different highlighters and she'd spend the whole class switching between them as she highlighted stuff. She'd do the same thing in all of her textbooks and manuals until they were all vibrant with color. I was going through one of her texts one day and I said "Gee, you sure are organized. This color coding thing really works for you, huh?" She blushed and admitted that actually, she didn't have a color for each concept, she just rotated her highlighters in a specific order and highlighted every single sentence. Turns out that she rarely actually read what she was highlighting.

So, yeah, all those science students who swear by this method, ask them if they actually read what they color code. *grins*

[loligo.livejournal.com]

I never used colored pens and if someone had forced me to do so it would have driven me completely around the bend. I just can't categorize knowledge in that sort of way while I'm in a note-taking situation. I organized things spatially, instead. Like, if there was a general principle with three examples, I would have the principle centered above and the examples all in a row beneath, with arrows leading to them. My notes ended up looking like some sort of demented flow chart, and I might as well not have used lined paper at all, because I completely ignored the lines.

[thepouncer.livejournal.com]

I use bullet points and dashes and little curvy arrows to indicate logic flow. Or, if the prof was good about it, numbers. "The five main points of xyz were ..."

[jimandblair.livejournal.com]

I’m pretty much agreeing with the other people. But being as dyslexic as fuck, colour coding during the class (black, blue, red) allowed me to code the information by importance. Black for the main text, blue for examples and red for the critical points. One thing, I found helpful was only writing on one side of the note book/sheets. Then when I went back to review the information, I could revise, alter, adjust the text and leave notes to myself as appropriate the corresponding ‘clean sheet’.

[cirakaite.livejournal.com]

Same here - being dyslexic really affected the way I studied. I would take a computer to class for actual note-taking because otherwise I just couldn't keep up or interpret something (backed up by a mini tape-recorder in case I did miss things, which happened frequently). But then when I was studying, I had to physically write things like details, formulae or definitions out, because otherwise I would just remember the broad theories. So I turned to cue-cards and colour coding in pretty colours. A different 'bold' colour for the headlines, words needing to be defined etc in each topic, a darker one along the same theme for its definition (for instance, a bright green followed by a darker green). Then change the colour when the topic changed. In the exam, I remembered details by visualising the colour, and filling in the text written in that colour. It worked surprisingly well.

[deadlychameleon.livejournal.com]

For me, highlighting and different color note taking is distracting as all heck, if I need to "highlight" a section, I put a bracket off to the side and make notes in the margin. I learn aurally anyway, I remember ridiculous percentages of what I hear. When I have large amounts of information to memorize, I sometimes tape record me reading notes and play them back to myself. I prefer to take notes in a structured outline format, and yes, I've been doing it for enough years that it doesn't even slow me down. Good speakers tend to give lectures that easily fit into outline form. Bad ones... .don't. And they're harder to follow.

I don't find I need to color code vocabulary, equations, etc, because they generally jump out at me anyway so long as I use enough space. But again, that's me, everyone learns a little differently.

[everagaby.livejournal.com]

I used to do it for chemistry equations and drawings to signify the different bonds. Field drawings and other basic physics stuff practically requires multiple colors on the page, just to signify what's going where and what the value is. It's also crazy helpful in terms of highlighting new terms and definitions in your notes, as well as important equations, and practice problems the instructor says might be on the test.

Wow. I didn't realize before just how much of a dork I was in college.

[rageprufrock.livejournal.com]

I used to take tests in ROYGBIV. D: And then my classics professor threatened to fail me on sight if I did it one more time. D: But he totally forgot to remind me before my final so HAHAHAHAH. I win.

No seriously: it's an organizational thing. I did it with all of my classes, and can I recommend jetpens.com?

[summertea.livejournal.com]

For my Comp Sci and math classes, I don't redo the notes, as it takes too much time. However, I do take notes in different colors:
-pencil/black ink for whatever the teacher wrote on the board
-red to underline/box/emphasize (vocabulary, 'Theorem ##.##', etc)
-red or blue, depending on what pens i have on my person, to draw arrows pointing to notes for myself, such as a more detailed explanation of what's going on, such as acronyms, explanations for algorithms (instead of just math formulas), etc.

Not a clue how the non-math/engineering kids take notes, though my bio/psych roommate goes all out with the color thing when she re-writes her notes after class. (How does she get all that TIME?!)