How to Use Your Mind | Page 6

make logical associations during the time of
impression. Keep your mind free, then, to work upon the subject-matter of the lecture.
Debate mentally with the speaker. Question his statements, comparing them with your
own experience or with the results of your study. Ask yourself frequently, "Is that true?"
The essential thing is to maintain an attitude of mental activity, and to avoid anything that
will reduce this and make you passive. Do not think of yourself as a vat into which the
instructor pumps knowledge. Regard yourself rather as an active force, quick to perceive
and to comprehend meaning, deliberate in acceptance and firm in retention.
After observing the stress laid, throughout this book, upon the necessity for logical
associations, you will readily see that the key-note to note-taking is, Let your notes
represent the logical progression of thought in the lecture. Strive above all else to secure
the skeleton--the framework upon which the lecture is hung. A lecture is a logical
structure, and the form in which it is presented is the outline. This outline, then, is your
chief concern. In the case of some lectures it is an easy matter. The lecturer may place the
outline in your hands beforehand, may present it on the black-board, or may give it orally.
Some lecturers, too, present their material in such clear-cut divisions that the outline is

easily followed. Others, however, are very difficult to follow in this regard.
In arranging an outline you will find it wise to adopt some device by which the parts will
stand out prominently, and the progression of thought will be indicated with proper
subordination of titles. Adopt some system at the beginning of your college course, and
use it in all your notes. The system here given may serve as a model, using first the
Roman numerals, then capitals, then Arabic numerals:
I. II. A. B. 1. 2. a. b. (1) (2) (a) (b)
In concluding this discussion of lecture notes, you should be urged to make good use of
your notes after they are taken. First, glance over them as soon as possible after the
lecture. Inasmuch as they will then be fresh in your mind, you will be able to recall
almost the entire lecture; you will also be able to supply missing parts from memory.
Some students make it a rule to reduce all class-notes to typewritten form soon after the
lecture. This is an excellent practice, but is rather expensive in time. In addition to this
after-class review, you should make a second review of your notes as the first step in the
preparation of the next day's lesson. This will connect up the lessons with each other and
will make the course a unified whole instead of a series of disconnected parts. Too often
a course exists in a student's mind as a series of separate discussions and he sees only the
horizon of a single day. This condition might be represented by a series of disconnected
links:
O O O O O
A summary of each day's lesson, however, preceding the preparation for the next day,
forges new links and welds them all together into an unbroken chain:
OOOOOOOOOO
A method that has been found helpful is to use a double-page system of notetaking, using
the left-hand page for the bare outline, with largest divisions, and the right-hand page for
the details. This device makes the note-book readily available for hasty review or for
more extended study.
READING NOTES.--The question of full or scanty notes arises in reading notes as in
lecture notes. In general, your notes should represent a summary, in your own words, of
the author's discussion, not a duplication of it. Students sometimes acquire the habit of
reading single sentences at a time, then of writing them down, thinking that by making an
exact copy of the book, they are playing safe. This is a pernicious practice; it spoils
continuity of thought and application. Furthermore, isolated sentences mean little, and
fail grossly to represent the real thought of the author. A better way is to read through an
entire paragraph or section, then close the book and reproduce in your own words what
you have read. Next, take your summary and compare with the original text to see that
you have really grasped the point. This procedure will be beneficial in several ways. It
will encourage continuous concentration of attention to an entire argument; it will help
you to preserve relative emphasis of parts; it will lead you to regard thought and not
words. (You are undoubtedly familiar with the state of mind wherein you find yourself

reading merely words and not following the thought.) Lastly, material studied in this way
is remembered longer than material read scrappily. In short, such a method of reading
makes