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Effective note taking

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Students smiling and taking notes in a classroom setting

One thing that students seem to be worried about (I’m a perfect example of this) is note taking. How should I take notes to ensure I understand the material completely? Students want to find the best way to fit our social life and time off around college and work. Although effective work and cutting corners both give us more time to ourselves, working effectively will give you more time and prevent the issues that cutting corners presents.

That’s where note-taking comes into play. Many websites offer different pathways to note taking that can be effective for different people, but no one method works best for everyone. Taking effective notes can range from writing down key words to drawing out a chart. The biggest part of note taking is whether you’re taking notes and actively listening to the professor.

Note: If taking notes on paper, leave some space on the page between lines or off to the side. Future you will be happy when you go back through and add something from a textbook.

Let’s talk about outlines for a moment…

Students who write outlines get better grades and do less work than students who didn’t write outlines. Students who spend half an hour writing an outline end up cutting out the time required for a full draft of the paper. That’s because outlines function as guideposts. Students who work to make an outline know what they are going to talk about beforehand and don’t divert from their topic.

…And bring it back to note taking.

Note taking also works as a guidepost. You put down information that will likely be on the exam, point out important details and dates, and create a path for your study time. What’s more amazing is that writing down information is very effective for memory. Not only will you sett up a guidepost by taking notes, you cut out brush and build a road to success.

That’s the weird thing about note taking. When you spend time writing notes in class you save time later that you would have spent trying to find that one date your professor mentioned. One hour in class taking notes is worth two or even three hours in class not taking notes.

We’ve got the notes down, so what’s next? Look through the notes throughout the quarter to refresh your memory. If you leave spaces between lines you can fill in those spaces with questions to ask about the assignment or notes from the book. Once you go over that information a few times you’ll be better prepared for exams and essays.

Should I take classes at a school that isn't regionally accredited?

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Normally we wouldn’t tackle this sometimes prickly question in a public forum, but we’ve been seeing more applications from students who took course credits at schools without regional accreditation. In many of these situations, those credits don’t transfer to EWU.

Sometimes students wonder if it’s a for-profit versus nonprofit issue, but it’s actually much more than that. After all, we accept transfer credits from a quite a few for-profit institutions. Instead, it’s a question of accreditation.

Accreditation is the way a school shows it has high academic standards, and generally speaking, there are two types of accreditation.

  • Regional accreditation. This is the gold standard of accreditation. Schools with regional accreditation are typically non-profit universities and community colleges with a focus on academics, and it’s usually easy to transfer credits from one regionally accredited school to another. Examples include Eastern Washington University, Texas A&M, Harvard University, and Spokane Community College.
  • National accreditation. Nationally accredited schools are mostly for-profit schools with a focus on vocational, career, or technical programs. There are many groups that offer national accreditation, but they all have different focuses and different levels of stringency as to what qualifies as “high quality.”

Why doesn’t the four-year university I want to attend accept credits from nationally accredited schools?

You’ll get quite a few answers to this question, but the answers tend to look like the ones below.

  1. National accreditation agencies are typically newer and haven’t yet built a track record of success.
  2. Schools with national accreditation often offer courses that regionally accredited schools do not, which makes transferring credits complex or impossible.
  3. Some nationally accredited schools have less stringent admissions policies, and that makes it harder for regionally accredited schools to accept credits from those schools.
  4. Depending on the accreditation agency (the group that decides if a school gets accredited), national accreditation can be much less rigorous than regional accreditation.
  5. Some national accreditation agencies have conflicts of interest that make unbiased accreditation difficult to achieve.
  6. In some cases, unethical practices at for-profit institutions have hindered efforts to make national accreditation more trustworthy.

But back to my original question: should I take classes at a nationally accredited school? 

Maybe.

  • Do you want to go to graduate school?
  • Do you plan to transfer to a regionally accredited school?
  • Does your future employer have a bias against credentials from nationally accredited schools?

If the answer is yes to any of these questions, you’re probably better off attending a regionally accredited school from the very first day you step into a classroom.

Moreover, students who attend nationally accredited for-profit schools tend to have higher debt levels, higher loan default rates, higher unemployment rates, lower salaries, and lower bachelor’s degree completion rates.

Remember: the State of Washington is pretty much the best state for transfer students, and EWU is one of the best transfer schools. For example, earning your AA degree at an approved community college in the state guarantees your admission to EWU and most of the state’s four-year universities. Better yet, college-level coursework at these 34 community colleges will typically transfer to EWU and any of the other four-year, public universities.

No other state has a such a robust, healthy system, so in many cases, it makes more sense to start you degree at a regionally accredited community college and transfer to a school like EWU.

 

Making every tuition dollar count

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We just saw this in the Spokesman-Review (the regional paper for the second-largest city in Washington, which is just 15 minutes down the road), and we definitely thought it worth sharing:

Demetrius Dennis shopped carefully to find the best college education for the lowest price.

“I reviewed the departments, programs offered and cost of tuition,” said Dennis, 34. “Financing contributed at least 75 percent of the deciding factor when I chose a transfer college.”

The Lakewood, Wash., resident had already saved about $20,000 on a bachelor’s degree in journalism by attending Pierce Community College before determining Eastern Washington University offered the best value to finish his studies.

EWU “provides the most reasonable tuition-to-education ratio available in the state,” Dennis said.

You can read the whole article about the rising cost of college tuition and the challenges that today’s students and families face.

By 2018, at least 63 percent of all jobs nationally will require a postsecondary degree, which means college will be necessary for more and more workers.

As states have cut budgets, however, college has grown more expensive, forcing students to be extra savvy when they make their college decisions.

Our goal at Eastern is to make an amazing college education as affordable and accessible to as many talented people as possible, which is why we’ve had fewer and smaller tuition increases than most universities in the state.

Without sacrificing innovative programs like justice studies, psychology, dental hygiene, education or engineering, we’ve quickly become the state’s best value in education … and our students are smarter than ever. Our average incoming freshman GPA went up again this year (from 3.17 to 3.24), which means we’re attracting more and more talented students who see the incredible value in what Eastern offers.

We’re glad Demetrius compared colleges, and we hope you’re doing the same. We’d love it if everyone made their comparisons and decided that Eastern was the best place to be (because it is!), but more importantly, we want you to choose the university that’s best for you and your future.

Wherever you go, we’re here to answer any questions you have along the way.