How familiar are the following scenarios? You are asked, “What was the topic of last week’s sermon?” Suddenly, your mind goes blank. You may remember certain points, but cannot remember what the message was primarily about. Or you may be taking a test at school and you cannot fully remember the answers. In either case, the problem seems to stem from not being able to remember what you learned.

But that may not be the problem at all! Are you even certain that the answers are stored in your memory—that they were properly retained? As a student, both in God’s Church and at school, you are required to take notes to help you remember what you are learning. When and where did you learn to take notes? Did you develop a system? Are you certain that your method is the most beneficial? Did you know that there is a step prior to note-taking that many do not focus on?

When the most effective method is applied, you can remember nearly 100% of anything that is said or taught—and this method is actually easier than you might first realize!

Reminding Your Memory

The key to learning any topic is storing appropriate information in the brain so it can be recalled later. Optimizing this process requires some understanding of how your mind stores information. The brain is constantly recording data. For instance, when you are walking down the street, it is recording various information: “What street am I on?”; “Are cars driving safely?”; “What is the person in front of me wearing?”; “Is the temperature warm?”; “What is behind me?”—and so on.

It would be silly to store so many unimportant things. This is why God designed your brain to have two types of memory.

The first is “working” (or short-term) memory, and the second is long-term memory. If, for instance, you focus on street signs for more than a few seconds, you allow your brain enough time to transfer the information into long-term memory. Conversely, if you do not focus on someone’s name when he is introduced, you have not allowed your mind enough time to transfer information.

The primary purpose of taking notes is to assist the brain in deeply encoding information into your long-term memory. Without active assistance, any information will be quickly forgotten.

How quickly? Within 24 hours of learning a subject, up to 80% will already be lost. Just seven days later, over 90% will be forgotten. And finally, after just 30 days, you will be unable to recall nearly 98% of what you learned. Taking notes is the only way to keep that information from being lost!

The First—And Crucial—Step

When listening to a sermon, you hear your minister—but is hearing the same as listening? It has been said that hearing is an automatic response to sound, but listening is a chosen act. And that chosen act is what differentiates someone with lots of notes (quantity) from someone with good notes (quality).

Remember, your goal in taking notes is to learn and understand the topic at hand. You should eventually be able to explain what you have learned in a thorough and comprehensive manner. However, before you can explain, you must learn—and to learn, you must listen.

The best way to become an effective listener is to avoid the common mistakes of listening and replace them with proper techniques. These techniques will change not only how effective you are at taking notes, but also how people perceive you. As the saying goes, everyone loves a good listener.

Make the Topic Interesting: Concentration is a critical part of listening. If you make the message apply to you directly, you will be more interested in the topic. This keeps your mind focused. It has been said that there is no such thing as an uninteresting subject, only uninterested people.

More Than Facts and Scriptures: For some, note-taking at Sabbath services is nothing more than writing down scriptures or facts. A series of scriptures will not be enough to allow your mind to recall the important aspects of the message. Good listeners are able to sift the ideas and concepts out of a message. Your goal is to learn and remember!

Bridging the Speech and Thought Speed Gap: A typical speaker will speak at a rate of about 100 words per minute. While this may sound fast, your mind is able to process words at approximately 500 words per minute. This means that 80% of the time, your mind is free to do other things. However, all too often, this means letting it wander. But you can put that time to good use! Analyze the speaking as it is happening, listen between the lines and create examples in your mind that make the message apply to you. With practice, your ability to concentrate and process information in the “idle” 80% of the time will make you a great listener.

Anticipate the Next Point: As you improve on concentration and ability to utilize the mind’s “idle” time, you should practice trying to anticipate what the next point will be. Ask yourself questions about what is being said. This more actively involves you in the message. And the more active you are, the more you will learn and understand.

There are many more points in becoming a great listener, but just applying the four above will deepen your understanding of not only Sabbath messages, but of lessons in your classes at school as well.

Note-Taking 101

Now that you understand the basics of listening, you might logically conclude that the best way to take notes is to simply write as much as possible. If you wanted to remember all the information, you should have it all written in your notes. Right?

Think of it this way: If you were studying a booklet, would your notes simply be rewriting the entire booklet? Of course not! You would only write down the main points, ideas and scriptures needed to understand the topic. Basically, you would summarize the booklet.

The same rule applies when you are taking notes at Sabbath services. You want to write down the main points, ideas and scriptures so that you can remember what was covered. As you become a better listener, you will more effectively distill the important points. This will, in turn, make your note-taking more efficient.

However, what to write is only the first step. How to write is also vitally important!

Recall that 98% of what you learn is forgotten in the first month. If you take notes and review them, the number is inversed. You will remember 98% of the information! How you write your notes determines how effective reviewing is—and how long you have to review.

The most popular system of note-taking is called the Cornell Note-Taking System. This system breaks your sheet of paper into three parts. In the note-taking column of your sheet, you will record meaningful notes from the message. This is the only area of the sheet that is used during the actual message. The other two sections are used later, when you review your notes.

The “queue column” is used to reduce your notes to a series of keywords or questions. These “queues” will be used to help you remember the expanded notes to which they are attached. Finally, the “summary” portion of the page is used to summarize the information on that page in a concise manner. You should also create a summary at the end of all your notes for a particular sermon to summarize the individual pages. As you can see, you will take more notes than you may have previously done. But you will also never forget what you learned.

Recite, Review and Reflect

The third and final step in note-taking is not really note-taking at all. To make sure that you retain 98% of what you have learned, you must utilize the queue and summary sections of your notes. The first step is to fill in the queue column with keywords or questions about the notes to the right. After doing this, cover the note-taking column and review the questions and keywords, trying to remember what they referred to. You will be surprised at how much you remember!

Once you have reviewed this information, summarize the notes and write them in the summary section. These steps create three different methods to remember information. The more ways you associate information in your mind, the easier it becomes to trigger the mechanisms required to recall it.

God’s Method of Studying

The overall concepts listed above have been taught in God’s Church for many years. You may have heard in sermons that we should study, pray and mediate to grow to be more like Christ.

When you study, you read and take notes. If you then pray about what you have learned, you are reviewing things with God—the ultimate teacher. Finally, if you then think about—meditate on—the things you have studied, then you are deeply ingraining them into your mind.

The steps are easy, but require time—and effort. If you follow them, you will be amazed at the results! And never again will your mind go blank when you are asked, “What was the topic of last week’s sermon?”