When taking notes, you don't need to write everything down. Here's some advice about how to capture the most important information while note-taking.
Instead of writing everything down every time, using your own words, you should take note of the key information such as main ideas, supporting details and examples, dates, names and important connections between information (e.g. cause and effect). Remember to also listen to the speaker’s voice and intonation – these features can tell you how the person feels about what they are saying, or indicate when they are going to ask a question.
You do not need to write complete sentences in your notes. You can minimise the amount of words you have to write by omitting grammatical words (e.g. articles, prepositions or auxiliary verbs) and punctuation unless they are important to the meaning. You can also use abbreviations, acronyms and symbols instead of writing complete words.
In L7, you will listen to each recording twice. If you miss something important the first time, mark the question somehow (e.g. by circling it), so you remember it. Then, when you listen for a second time, try to catch the answer that you missed. After listening for a second time, consolidate your notes and fill any gaps from your memory and knowledge. Make sure you write an answer to every question, even if you are unsure.
In the Cornell Style of note-taking, you write “cues” (key words or headings) on the left, and make your notes on the right. This method is useful for university lectures because it is easy to find the information you need when revising your notes.
Most REW students will be familiar with mind-maps. Mind maps are useful because they make it easy to see the relationships between ideas. They are helpful for studying vocabulary and revising key information.
The linear method is one of the most common and popular methods of note-taking. You can use headings and subheadings to separate ideas and use indentations to show the difference between main ideas and supporting ideas/examples.
The “charting” style of note-taking uses charts (also called “tables”) to separate data. This method is good for comparison or categorisation. The charting style is helpful when preparing to write an essay or recording information about different topics in a lecture.
In the L7 listening exam, the lecture will be divided into slides with different topics and subheadings. These words help you to understand what kind of information you will hear on each slide.
Before you listen, you will be given time to read the slides. Use this time to predict what you will hear in the lecture, and on each slide. What do you think will be the main idea? What kinds of information will you hear about on each slide? What kinds of words, expressions and ideas do you expect to hear?
The knowledge you already have about the topic will help you guess what kind of words and information you might hear and activate the vocabulary you already know so you can better understand the lecture.
For more information about prediction and other listening strategies, visit the British Council website.
Under the MyStudies tab of your MyRMIT page, you will find “ILC1 – Online ILC”. Follow this link to find lots of extra listening practice:
Want to learn more about the pathways programs available? RMIT Training offers RMIT English Worldwide (REW) or Foundation Studies pathway programs.
To learn more about how these pathway programs are delivered visit:
RMIT English Worldwide (REW) gives you the academic English skills you need to pathway into a program at RMIT University or other learning institutes.
Foundation Studies is a program designed to give international students the skills they need to be university ready.
Read on to understand some of the features of spoken English and how you can better use them to help you.
Depending on how you count words, English has the largest vocabulary in the world. So how do you know which words to learn?
Speakers connect words when speaking naturally and it can be hard to understand the individual words.
Acknowledgement of Country
RMIT University acknowledges the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation on whose unceded lands we conduct the business of the University. RMIT University respectfully acknowledges their Ancestors and Elders, past and present. RMIT also acknowledges the Traditional Custodians and their Ancestors of the lands and waters across Australia where we conduct our business - Artwork 'Sentient' by Hollie Johnson, Gunaikurnai and Monero Ngarigo.
Acknowledgement of Country
RMIT University acknowledges the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation on whose unceded lands we conduct the business of the University. RMIT University respectfully acknowledges their Ancestors and Elders, past and present. RMIT also acknowledges the Traditional Custodians and their Ancestors of the lands and waters across Australia where we conduct our business.
