Notes will help you break down information, organise it and have something manageable to revise.
Create good notes by:

- Leaving wide margins: leave wide margins around the page to add extra information later and to sum things up.
- Dating your notes and filing them: stay organised this way. Never lose anything and have it on hand when you need it.
- Cutting out the waffle: take down only what’s really important.
- Using bullet points: reduce your notes to bullets points whenever you can. They are easier to learn.
- Highlighting: use highlighters to emphasise any really essential points.
- Summing up: sum up points in the margins.
- Catching the eye: use little pictures in the margins to help remember difficult points.
- Colour coding: colour code notes of different topics on different coloured cards. This helps you associate different ideas with different colours and helps you recall them.
- Using alternatives notes: mix things up for different topics by using a different presentation of notes like spider diagrams, Venn diagrams and so on.
- Reviewing notes quickly: go back over notes as soon as possible to keep them in your head while they’re still fresh in your mind.
For more study tips, read Shortcuts to Success: Study and Exam Skills for Leaving Certificate by Irene Togher.