One key thing to remember about the diagramming technique: it's not about taking notes. Most people intuitively think of it as a way to take quick notes, but the notes are not your focus. Your focus is analyzing the argument while you're reading it for the first time; the diagramming technique is simply a method to use to keep your brain on its task. Your ultimate goal is to "crack" the argument (in much the same way we talk about "cracking a case" in business school).
Pretend you have a limited amount of ink - ask yourself, is this important enough to the overall argument to merit writing down? Also, use EXTREME shorthand - you're taking notes just for yourself and you only have to be able to read the notes for the next minute or two; then you can forget all about them. My notes are so abbreviated that most other people probably couldn't read them and, if I had to read them myself a couple of hours later, I probably wouldn't know what I was talking about.
And practice writing notes without taking your eyes off the argument. The constant up-and-down look actually interrupts you quite a bit.
Go back and look at the diagrams for the ones you did and figure out (now that you know what the answer is) what you really needed to write down and what you really didn't need to write down. If you do that enough, it will help you get a feel for the kind of language that signals something important vs. the stuff that tends to end up being extraneous. That will also help you find the most important info the first time you read a new argument.
Finally, remember that no technique will work for 100% of the population. If some technique really isn't working for you, drop it. This one does take a while (typically 2-3 weeks) to get used to, but if it's still not working for you after that, then don't use it.
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Stacey Koprince
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Manhattan GMAT
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