Tips for more effective study notes

Study notes. Your ticket to winning the HSC or your ticket to messing it up.

A lot of people assume that study notes are essential for HSC success, which they are. But what a lot of people don’t realise is that if you’re not making them correctly, you could be doing more harm than good.

So we’re here to clear the air and provide 5 points on exactly how to use study notes to make sure they’re working for you.

1. Pretty notes don’t equal great grades

We’ve been doing this whole ‘HSC thing’ for a while and we’ve seen awesome notes that look so pretty I could cry and terrible notes that look like a dog's breakfast. Point is, pretty notes don’t equal great marks.

It’s a common trap that people spend huge amounts of time formatting their notes, colour coding, adding in numerous diagrams and not interacting with the actual content whatsoever. It’s dangerous because having pretty notes gives you an awesome sense of accomplishment, like you’ve really achieved something beneficial. In reality that 6,543 hours you spent trying to get the bullet points to align, is totally wasted.

The most important thing about creating notes is that you interact with the content in them and not get caught up in the notes themselves. Remember, the HSC Exams don’t examine you on what you can write under a heading, it’s about answering a question. And the only way you can smash that is by actually answering questions.

A good rule of thumb is to spend about a quarter of your study time on making notes, a quarter on memorisation and half the time on practice.

2. Stick to the syllabus

The best way to make your notes effective AF is to structure them according to the syllabus. It makes sense, the syllabus is how you learn the content and the syllabus is how you get asked about the content. The syllabus is also what’s used when the markers grade your responses.

The more you can think about the content in terms of the syllabus dot points the better position you’ll be in throughout your exams. This clear and logical structure also makes your memorising similarly clear and logical. Der.

So break notes down into each topic, then each syllabus point then each sub dot point. We have a theory that even if you remember the heading and none of the actual content you’ll still be 60% of the way there.

3. Make them purpose built

The purpose of notes isn’t just to make notes. The purpose of notes is to make sure you know the content so you can dominate the exam. Problem is, most exams require more than just a recall of information. The information needs to be structured into essays and responses to answer a question. So there are two parts to this:

1. Know the content
   If your purpose is just to jam the knowledge into your head then you have no business making your notes any longer than is absolutely necessary. Short, sharp and to the point. No full sentences. No unnecessary words. Only the gold.
2. Apply the content
   Once you know the content, your purpose is to apply that content. So it’s useful to use full sentences and actually use the words you would in an answer. For example you wouldn’t just learn your English thesis in dot points. You’d learn it in full sentences so you can just smash it out on the day. Same goes with all other subjects.

It allows you to think less and move faster if you know the content AND exactly how it’s worded to answer the question.

4. The act is greater than the result

Some people think that simply having notes is the same as making notes. Don’t listen to these people.

The act of actually creating your notes is when the content sinks into your brain. You might not realise it straight away but it happens the night before the exam when all of a sudden you learnt that topic in 35mins instead of 135 mins like everyone else. That was a fluke right? Must have been because I got a good night's sleep. No, it’s because you’ve been subconsciously learning that topic by writing notes for the last 3 weeks.

This is why we are hesitant to encourage the following note-making behaviours:

1. Overly using technology. I love copy/paste as much as the next guy but it doesn’t help you when writing notes. Try to do it yourself.
2. You could split the effort with your mates. A topic each! But I guarantee you won’t know their topics as well as your own.
3. Paying for notes. Less money and less retention. We thought about charging for notes at HSC Hub, but we don’t think it’s worth it because of this.

Spend time creating your own notes, that’s when the magic happens. Trust me.

5. Notes are evolving

Following nicely from the last point, don’t fall into the trap of writing your notes once and patting yourself on the back. Your notes are a constantly evolving process from now until exam day.

The best students write their first set of notes (which is always way longer than it needs to be) and then they revisit them and cut down, simplify and mold them even further. It’s this process of refining your notes that leads to the best retention rates. You’re actually reading through your work and deciding what’s important, what’s not worded properly and what can be represented better.

You’re interacting with the content.

And so, as we’ve come full circle you now know how to write notes in the most effective way possible. Go forth and write.