Photo Courtesy of Freshman Cate Tucker.

  San Luis Obispo High School teachers have been telling students how to write notes right. So, is it the Cornell Method, the outline method, mapping method, charting method, or the boxing method? 

  “I think I have good notes, I try to be neat,” said sophomore Faith Hartford.

  No matter if one is listening to a lecture or just reading through a textbook the boxing method is the way to go (seen in the picture above). 

  Choose the main topic, not too broad but something that you can get a subtopic and key points out of. 

  Then find the subtopic, this should be not as broad as the main topic but still enough to get notes out of. 

  Then the key point. The most important thing about the key points is to keep it brief. Nothing more than you absolutely need, keep it short and easy to study, never a full sentence. Also, you have to know when to move on to another main topic. 

  For example if the subject was Biology then a Main topic could be anatomy of the brian and a subtopic could be the Frontal Lobe and one key point would help you reason.

 Another tip: put bookmark tabs for a unit, if you are doing Biology then Anatomy would have a tab. They stick out from your notebook so you can just grab and look.

  “I like to use highlighters,” said Hartford.  

  Highlighting has been proven ineffective. It can draw attention away and is unnecessary with this method.

  Taking notes can be difficult but necessary when attending any type of school. Good luck note taking Tigers!