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The Dyslexic Student Social Worker- How to take great notes

Updated: Oct 1, 2022



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The next four bite-size posts aim to provide dyslexic social work students with some tips and tricks to help them along their university journey. Please see The Dyslexic Social Worker for an abundance of practical tips and tricks for your placement.


The first post will focus on the written aspect of studying- note taking.


How to Take Great Notes


It’s very difficult to take notes whilst in a lecture or watching an online course. Dyslexia can add additional pressure to this anxiety provoking task and often we have added hurdles into the note taking process. Lectures can move very fast and are full of information… all of which must be captured in notes (for their importance!). In face-to-face learning, we would note take whilst also looking at a PowerPoint presentation and on teams, we may be expected to note take a video. It is worth noting (excuse the pun) that note taking is especially hard as we are copying other people’s notes or writing their dictation, not our own words or own understanding of the topic.


However, not only do you try to note take what is being presented on the screen, but you are also trying to capture what the lecturer is verbally saying. And more often than not, there is a lot of content being presented on the screen. This can result in one frantically looking up at the board/screen trying to memorise sentences (and only remembering 2 words) and then frantically trying to find your place on the page again.


Moreover, there is an additional challenge, time constraint on live lectures. There is only a certain amount of time that lecturers must complete their lecture. This means that they do not have the time to wait for everyone to catch up with note taking.


For anyone with dyslexia or who are neurodiverse, this time constraint can be a challenge, it can be stressful, and it can cause anxiety around learning. This in itself is counterproductive, as in my own experience, when I am stressed about trying to take notes, I will zone out. This will look like my mind wandering off into a daydream, looking out of the window or focusing on what I must do for the rest of the day- this will cause me more anxiety as I will worry about what I missed and if it’s a vital piece of information.


Sometime writing word for word worked well for me, however, at other times, I didn’t have time to process, I could only focus on trying to get the verbal content written down. When this happened, learning didn’t happen because I was not processing the information, I was just trying to copy it.


Therefore, after a few unsuccessful lectures and a few successful lectures, I used my dyslexia strength to think outside the box and I developed a few strategies to take notes during lectures:


  • Use technology- take your laptop into lectures and type up notes, especially if your typing is faster than your writing. If you take your laptop in, you can also use a note taking assistant program.


  • Use technology- use a Dictaphone or an iPhone to record lectures. Most Dictaphones allow you to flag where you may have zoned out, or, when an important or interesting discussion has happened. This will allow you to soak up all the information as opposed to writing it all down.


  • Use technology- The main aim of note taking is to learn the content. To maximise this learning, whilst reducing anxiety, take a picture of the slides or information, number it in your notebook and jot down key words. This way you can spend more time reading them.


  • Be creative- I often find it beneficial to write word for word. When I am in this mood, I will also try to be creative in my note taking. Try and be creative by using lots of coloured boxes and arrows in your work, use sticky notes so your page is interactive (needing to lift it to reveal information). In short, make your notes pleasing to look back at later (when you can admire your handy artwork!). See some example of my student notebook below.





  • Use your lecturers and peers - Talk with your lecturers to be sure you understood the material and talk through the main ideas of the lectures with your peers to help form your own thoughts and understanding.


  • Use self-awareness to manage anxiety- When it comes to note taking, you are bound to feel anxious. You may even feel this physically before your brain starts to process how anxiety provoking note taking can be (I know I’ve had clammy hands and only realise when trying to take the lid off my pen). So, if you are in a lecture or lesson, you need to take notes and you are feeling tense, then this will make things harder for you (this is because you will be functioning in your limbic system, the emotional brain, instead of the cortex, the thinking part of the brain). If you can start to recognise the signs of anxiety (e.g tense neck and shoulders, feeling something in the gut etc) then you can start to use strategies to calm your body down. For me, I use sensory techniques. I find 5 things that are the same colour in the room, I try to listen to 4 different sounds, I try to touch 3 different things, smell 2 things and taste one (usually my own drink or chewing the top of my pen!)


With these skills, you will be ready to tackle your essay whilst being informed on how to utilise your dyslexia strengths whilst tackling its associated challenges head on.


I hope you are able to use at least one tip or trick from this blog post to assist you in your studies. If you have any tips which I have not mentioned, please get in contact, leave a comment or share on your own social media.


Thank you for reading and look out for episode 2 of the Dyslexic Student Social Worker!



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