When I give clinics I am always very happy when I see STudents taking notes! Because I know that by note-taking these students take much more value out of the clinic! Here are the 4 main reasons why taking notes is so important and effective:
1. Even if you have a great memory, you won’t be able to remember everything that an instructor says during a 2 or 3-day workshop or clinic. Taking notes is a great way of helping you remember important tips and concepts for future use, where you can review your notes at home at any times.
2. It seems that writing things down makes STudents remember a higher proportion of key facts and the important STuff, rather than a more or less random assortment of information covered in the clinic.
3. One common experience many ST studens have is, that when they take notes, they remember things well enough, that they rarely end up having to look at their notes again. Because when they write, they are putting some degree of thought into evaluating and ordering the information that they are receiving. That process, and not the notes themselves, is what helps fix tips, concepts and ideas more firmly in their minds.
4. Writing also seems to act as a kind of ‘mini-rehearsal’ for doing. It’s the same what happens with ‘visualizing’: visualizing doing something can ‘trick’ the brain into thinking it’s actually doing it, and writing something down seems to use enough of the brain to trigger the same effect.
So the next time when you go to an ST Workshop with an ST Instructor, grab a note book to collect your notes in one place in order to get the most possible value out of an ST workshop!
