Few student’s that I’ve worked with say they don’t struggle with listening and taking notes at the same time. Most struggle with it.

Students frequently say they can either pay full attention to what is being said, but not take notes – or they can focus on writing an idea down, but then get lost.

The same is true when watching a video segment. Either they’re writing down a key point, or they’re watching and listening to what’s happening. It’s a struggle to do both.

To overcome this common challenge, here are 3 things for you to focus on today.

1. Purposefully Practice

If taking notes is challenging for you, then you need to focus your practice time on, you guessed it: taking notes!

Don’t avoid note taking because you find it hard. Instead, lean in to this area of weakness and purposefully spend time practicing taking notes.

You could watch your favourite English tv show. How many of the 5w’s can you note down about what is happening in the show?

Identify who is facing the problem.

Can you figure out what the problem is?

What actions to they take to solve the problem?

Why does it matter?

Where is it taking place?

What are the characters wearing (focus on prominent items – not everything.) After the show, see if you can use your notes to retell what the show was about.

The point: if note taking is hard for you, focus your efforts on practicing it!

2. Set yourself up for success:

The intro statement of each listening section will tell you how many speakers there are, and if they’re male or female.

Setup your paper into sections based on number of speakers and put a M= male and a F= female.

As you’re listening, take notes under their heading: when the male is talking, take notes in his section. When the female is talking, take notes under her section etc.

If you get the person’s name, write that under their heading too!

3. For task 5 – you’re watching and listening to a video. Here’s what to notice:

• What’s the topic?
• How does each speaker feel about topic? (Watch facial expressions! Body language.)
• Note who agrees or disagrees with the topic.
• You won’t be asked about details, like how many people in the room, or who was wearing glasses or the color of someone’s tie. But you may need to answer a question that THE PERSON WEARING A TIE or blue sweater was talking about! (anchor each speaker with a prominent clothing item.)
• As person is speaking, take notes under their heading.
• Pay attention to names, dates and any events being mentioned.

The most important thing you should be doing on a regular basis to develop your note taking skills for the CELPIP is to be listening to a variety of content, from news stories, interviews, and video based sources and take notes on what you’re listening to.

As you’re listening, especially to news stories and interviews, try and take notes around the 5W’s – who, what, when, where and why.

It’s so important to be practicing these skills in a variety of content settings: audio and video.

To summarize, you can develop your note taking skills for the CELPIP by:

• Purposefully practicing taking notes: especially if you find it hard!
• Set yourself up for success: pay attention to the intro statement for each listening task and organize your note paper accordingly.
• Watching short videos/tv shows and practice taking notes with this kind of content.