Hi everyone! Today I wanted to briefly touch on note taking because it is one of the biggest pieces to the puzzle of surviving PA school. Why? Because your notes are what you will refer back to a million times to master the material, unless you were blessed with a photographic memory. First and foremost find out what type of learner you are. Visual, aural, kinesthetic, read/write? A combination of a few aka multimodal? If you just don’t know, take the VARK Questionnaire (takes 10 minutes tops). For me, I am a combination of the visual learner and kinesthetic learner. Bright/bold colors, lots of pictures, and hands on is how I learn best.
When I first started PA school I was a little bit nervous (okay a lot bit nervous lol) because I heard that what study skills worked for me in undergrad, may not work for me now with this amount of material. I tried making outlines, typing into Powerpoint slides, flashcards, you name it. These methods may work for some, but for me I felt disorganized and that’s when panic started to set in. So before completely unraveling at the seams (like week 2 of school ha), I went back to my tried and true holy grail Notability app that I used in undergrad. It can be found in the App Store (free for iPhone and iPad; $10 for Mac), and is all yours after a quick download.
Now this app is perfect for kinesthetic and/or visual learners because you can annotate directly on any PDFs, draw pictures, use lots of color, etc. I even downloaded PDF copies of my textbooks into the app to annotate using my iPad Pro. It honestly can’t get better than this for a FREE app. The aural and read/write learners can also get use out of this application because there are features for typing, adding pictures, and recording sound. So if you were lost like me trying to figure out how to effectively take notes during class, try Notability. Now I am not guaranteeing you will learn everything with your first pass through the material. I still have to put in the work, but having my notes in one place makes life easier.
Not convinced? That is okay! I have listed some other methods that could point you toward success for your particular learning style. What is most important is that you find what works best for you.
Visual Strategies
- Draw things
- Use bold colors and underlining to highlight important topics
- Keep notes spatially organized
- Turn your visuals into words
Aural Strategies
- Explain notes to a classmate
- Record lectures
- Read your notes out loud
- Discuss topics with classmates
Kinesthetic Strategies
- Engage as many senses (smell, sight, touch, taste, hearing) as possible
- Apply “real world” situations to material
- Use a lot of examples
Read/Write Strategies
- Write out the words over, and over, and over
- Make outlines with lists
- Read your notes silently
- Rewrite main ideas in your own words
I know there are a ton of apps/methods out there for studying. Regardless of what you chose, make sure you are learning the material NOT for memorization, but for understanding. We are learning how to treat patients! The solid foundations we build now will definitely benefit us during our clinical year, and much beyond during our career. What study methods work best for you guys?
Happy Note Taking!
The Curly Haired PA 