In Two weeks, the CBSE Term 2 Class 10 & 12th exams will start. This will be the first time when this new type of offline mode examination is being conducted which will be covering only 50 per cent of the rationalised syllabus from CBSE Class 10 & 12.
Now is the perfect time for students to do quick revisions from their notes. But if your notes are just a shorter version of the book then these revision sessions are going to be tiring and lengthy for you.
Almost defeating the purpose of making notes. For that, you need to start modifying your notes to make them smart and crisp.
There are many kinds of note-taking methods and strategies you can use to make your notes effective and organised and score above 90 per cent in CBSE Term 2 Class 10 & 12 examination.
But right you should use those which you can implement in this short time and most importantly works for you.
While making notes from CBSE Class 10 & 12 textbooks most of the students find it hard to cut down on what seems to be the important points in every paragraph, and they struggle to leave anything out of it. “Researchers found that if important information was contained in notes, it had a 34 per cent chance of being remembered. Information not found in notes had only a five per cent chance of being remembered” (Howe, 1970, in Longman and Atkinson, 1999).
But that does not mean you start re-writing the book. Treading on the road of smart work instead of noting as many pages as possible out of one concept, students should focus on extracting as many concepts as possible onto every page.
Now the question comes of how to convert or improve your existing notes to smart notes so that they help you in CBSE Term 2 Class 10 & 12 exams.
Things to remember before improving your notes
Review
The first step is to review your old notes, the syllabus of CBSE Term 2 Class 10 & 12 and the reading materials you used to make those notes.
Do an advance reading of reference books and CBSE Class 10 & 12 books to get an idea of the areas of improvement. Apart from this, it will also help you take the road of the structure while making your notes smart.
Glossary
Must have heard this word a lot. At the end of the books or in between the chapters. Smart notes always contain fewer words to explain a concept so jotting down difficult terms and their meanings will help you read the secret language you have created. Plus you can also indicate in this section the concepts you find hard from your CBSE Class 10 & 12 Books.
Never write every word
Your aim is not to write a book but to reduce it to only the important stuff. Writing unnecessarily will be counterproductive to the very activity of making notes. Write only the important concepts and their interesting details. CBSE Term 2 Class 10 & 12 syllabi are already cut down to 50 per cent reducing your writing burden.
NO to Doctors Handwriting
Do not write in handwriting that needs to be deciphered first. And also notes are not a writing assignment that you need to beautify. You aim to make it clear and readable, not perfect. CBSE Term 2 Class 10 & 12 will be conducted in offline mode so shrugging out the rust of your handwriting is also very important.
Steps to make your notes smart
Ideas and concepts
No matter what somebody tells you, ideas and concepts can change the world. Don't know about the world but they can for sure change your notes. Keep your focus solely on the ideas, keywords and concepts from a paragraph,
1. Note and Identify the most relevant information from the syllabus of CBSE Term 2 Class 10 & 12. Definitions, derivations, and theorems are the ones to cut. Leave all other secondary details.
2. New information adds a new perspective to a concept. So grants the new information priority. Don't waste time writing down recurring information that you have already noted.
The question, answer, evidence method
How does our brain work or what does the CBSE Term 2 Class 10 & 12 examinations require? Both raise questions to test our intellect and demand answers with evidence.
So what a better way to make your notes smart, structure them in the same way. It is a very effective method as it forces you to describe the topic in your own words, making you understand and retain material much more efficiently.
1. Instead of copying the language of the book, formulate a series of questions that might be asked from the CBSE Class 10 & 12 material, then fill in your answers.
2. Your answers should provide the evidence to support your conclusion by pointing to specific examples from within the text. With this strategy, you will automatically record all the relevant information, in a concise and smart format.
Be Organised
If your notes are messy, disorganised and difficult to read then you will hardly touch them let alone read them. At the same, you should not solely focus on just making your notes look good. Find your balance of understanding. So tips you can follow are,
1. For every new topic, the chapter makes a Fresh Start on a fresh page.
2. Make sure your writing is neat and readable, and avoid using stylish handwriting.
3. To balance the amount of information and blank space on a page is to use wide margins.
4. Create your symbolism to denote various aspects and make diagrams where necessary. Diagrams are very important in CBSE Term 2 Class 10 & 12 Examination.
If you find these tips too hard to remember, we also have a shorter way to remember these and improve your notes for CBSE Term 2 Class 10 & 12.
Five Rs of smart note-making
Read: Read your previous notes and CBSE Class 10 & 12 material thoroughly.
Reflect: Analyse the text of ideas and concepts from the syllabus of CBSE Term 2 Class 10 & 12, plan questions and answers with evidence.
Review: Now highlight the questions and their answers containing evidence with the help of diagrams, symbols, derivations and theorems.
Reduce: Now read the highlighted text again and reduce the secondary details and filter out the repeating ideas. Aka cleans the text you are about to write.
Record: Now that you have got the hold of your questions and their responses. Record them neatly in an organised wide-margined fresh page.
Now let's look at the benefits that smart notes will give you in CBSE Term 2 Class 10 & 12 exam and how that will boost your preparations and confidence.
7 Benefits of making the Smart Notes
A condensed record of your study
Smart notes are a set of concise, well-organised journals of your learning. Cover all the important ideas and concepts you might need after CBSE Term 2 Class 10 & 12 exams or in future to revisit a topic.
Indulges you in active learning
When you make notes you decide on and highlight the key ideas, identifying the structures of questions and answers that might be asked in CBSE Term 2 Class 10 & 12. You bifurcate the hard problems into smaller problems. You remain organised and disciplined throughout in turn making you an active learner.
Improves Focus
The process of making smart notes pushes your brain to function for longer durations. Building on enough mental energy and sharpness to study CBSE Class 10 & 12 textbooks at a deeper level. Expanding your productivity and capacity to process information.
Inspires Creativity
When you organise the ideas effectively with limited tools at your disposal in your notes. You learn to creatively answer a question with help of diagrams, symbols and mapping techniques focusing your attention on the bigger as well as detailed picture. CBSE Term 2 Class 10 & 12 will also ask competency based questions where creativity is the main thing that will be tested.
Teaches Prioritising Skills
Remember what we talked about in the beginning, that you need to filter out the secondary details from your notes. Making smart notes enables you to select important material and discard unnecessary content. This adds to your prioritising skills.
Helps in comprehension
Making smart notes increases memory retention and comprehension by supplying a constant challenge to the brain.
Attention span
Writing with your hands will make you pay more attention, as it will activate both your mental and muscular focus.
By now you must have realised that the notes you previously made and the ones that you will make now after reading this article are indeed smart. To score above 90 per cent in CBSE Term 2 Class 10 & 12 Examination. You need to make these changes in your notes to be effective and efficient in the last phase of your preparation.
Good Luck!
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