When making notes, the last thing you want to do is write out everything word-for-word. You don't even want to write out every word - you should already leave out short words like
the, a, and, but.
To speed up your note-taking even more, use abbreviations. You should come up with some of your own (they will vary from class to class), but here are some common abbreviations and well-known symbols/shorthand which will help you get started. Some will already be familiar to you. You're allowed to suspend grammatical English while taking notes - just remember it when writing your papers!
Common abbreviations
| b/c | because |
| c | circa, around (from the Latin circa) |
| cf | compare (from the Latin confer) |
| ch | chapter |
| eg | for example (from the Latin exempli gratia) |
| esp | especially |
| etc | and so on (from the Latin et cetera) |
| govt | government |
| ibid | in the same place (from the Latin ibidem) |
| ie | that is (from the Latin id est) |
| min | minimum |
| max | maximum |
| no | number |
| nos | numbers |
| p | page |
| pp | pages |
| re | regarding |
| ref | reference |
| vs | against, compared to (from the Latin versus) |
| w/ | with |
| w/o | without |
| yr | year |
Common symbols/shorthand
| --> | leads to, produces, causes |
| & | and |
| ? | question, check this, unsure |
| ~ | approximately |
| $ | money, cost, price |
| > | greater than |
| < | less than |
| ± | give or take |
| # | number |