Nadia222 wrote:I am currently a Manhattan GMAT student, and
For Critical Reasoning we are taught by the strategy guides
to take brief notes. While approaching the Official
Guide questions timed, I find it hard to take notes and then to
answer the question. I become frustrated trying to figure out how to abbreviate
without writing everything out. I know there has to be a simpler
method to approaching these questions. Writing notes is great,
but I feel like I am losing valuable time by doing so.

Dear Nadia,
Hmmmm. I can understand taking notes for Reading Comprehension, because it can be convenient to abbreviate a long paragraph down to a few words. Here's a video about note-taking on the RC:
https://magoosh.com/gmat/2013/gmat-tuesd ... te-taking/
For the Critical Reasoning, though, I don't think note-taking is essential, as long as you can determined which part of the prompt is the evidence, which is the conclusion, etc. A little practice with note-taking can be helpful to develop those skills, but once you can identify the parts of the argument, you don't need notes anymore.
Does this make sense?
Mike