Art History Note Taking

ORGANIZATION
Make sure to write big clear headings every time your professor introduces a new style, region, period, artist, etc.  This will make studying your notes much easier.

PREPARATION
It helps to read ahead before class so that you can follow the lecture better.  Bringing the book to class and reading along is also helpful.

 

FOR VISUAL LEARNERS:
Listen and jot notes quickly
Then sketch in the margins the features
of the slide that are going to help you to remember it best
NOTE: don’t spend too long making the pictures perfect... stick figures may be sufficient
FOR VERBAL LEARNERS:
Listen and take your time writing out the features of the slide that are going to help
you remember it

 

TAPE RECORD LECTURES

If you find that you are still having difficulty keeping up with the lecture or remembering it from your notes, take a tape recorder to class with you and tape lectures. This will help to fill in the gaps in your notes and also give you the opportunity to relax during the lecture and focus more fully on the images.  If you elect to tape lectures, make sure you have some way of correlating the taped lectures to the images being discussed (i.e. sketch images in notes and include artist and date information or follow along in your textbook).