Survey a chapter before taking notes Before you start to take notes decide what type of note-taking system should be used Your overriding and primary goal should be to understand relationships between and among the topics and supporting details Before constructing a map ask what categories of information you should know for each topic Use maps to show relationships among the topics and subtopics Use notecards if there are more than 5-7 subtopics Only use an outline form of notes when a lecturer presents a lot of disorganized information Only use phrases in notes Opinion Poll | Goal Setting | Quiz | Experts Say | Links