Study Tip: Colour Coding Textbooks

It's time to take notes from your textbook. Suddenly, there is a large block of black text just staring at you in the face. You may be thinking to yourself, how are you going to take notes from this dull page? All you need is a bit of colour - highlighters!

Colour coding textbooks is essential to ensure that you are not just copying and rewriting what is already in your textbook into your own notes. That would be pointless and just a waste of your time. Assign a different colour to a certain group of information. For example in history, assign a different colour to every time a date, person, keyword and important fact appears in your textbook. Then, when it comes to writing your notes, it will be easier for you to find information quickly and write short, simple notes.

For example, here is a short hand way of taking notes to maximise your time when writing and revising notes:

Paragraph on Christopher Columbus colour coded:

Dates (purple)

Keywords (red)

Places (dark blue)

Explorer and navigator Christopher Columbus was born in 1451 in the Republic of Genoa, Italy. His first voyage into the Atlantic Ocean in 1476 nearly cost him his life. Columbus participated in several other expeditions to Africa. In 1492 Columbus left Spain in the Santa Maria, with the Pinta and the Niña along side. He has been credited for opening up the Americas to European colonization.