At Test Prep New York, we teach people *not* to take notes unless they're among the very few people who truly can't concentrate unless they're scribbling. Note taking is a distraction and a big waste of time. What you want to do is get a sense of the argument that the passage makes, the big ideas and where to look to find the details. You can get that mental map of the passage much more easily if you're not distracted by writing a physical road map. I've had very few students who really had to take notes, and if someone doesn't have that need, I certainly wouldn't encourage them to develop the habit.

The only exception I can think of is that *occasionally*, in the very heavy science passages, it can be useful to "translate" a dense part of the passage into a simple little picture or formula, as when they're describing a sequence of events and you need to keep straight that such-and-such chemical makes the cell release another type of chemical which causes other cells to do something or other. That kind of thing can be written down with a few words and maybe a few arrows. But doing an outline of the whole passage? Not a good idea for the vast majority of people.

Thank you Karen, I will try take note only when I meet a dense part.

Another question.

some time, I meet a very long sentense in the passage. This sentence has 3 or 4 clauses which are embedded in one another. I see it is hard to understand the gist of this sentence. some person tell me to paraphrase each clause. but I am not clear of this

Pls, help me with this.

duongthang wrote:Thank you Karen, I will try take note only when I meet a dense part.

Another question.

some time, I meet a very long sentense in the passage. This sentence has 3 or 4 clauses which are embedded in one another. I see it is hard to understand the gist of this sentence. some person tell me to paraphrase each clause. but I am not clear of this

Pls, help me with this.

IMO depends on whether those sentences play a special role in the main point of the paragraph. If they did, so you must understand the general idea of those sentences. Try reading subject verb object and/or parapharse the sentences. All the best.

I don't take notes because the passages are relatively short. when you get to a question it will usually give you a line to refer to, or you can just scan the passage to find what you need quickly.

The passages are by nature difficult to read. Don't feel bad if you don't totally understand what they are trying to explain. for each question, reread the relevant parts and answer accordingly.