Fast Note-Taking Skills for VSTEP Listening and Speaking
Why note-taking matters on VSTEP
In Listening Part 3, you hear a long lecture or talk and then answer several questions in a row. If you listen without writing anything down, you can easily forget details from early in the talk by the time a question asks about them. In Speaking Parts 2 and 3, you get a short preparation time (usually under a minute); quick notes help you hold onto your outline and the points you planned to make without losing them partway through your answer.
5 fast note-taking techniques
- Use symbols instead of words: an arrow (→) for "leads to" or "increases", an equals sign (=) for "means", a not-equal sign (≠) for "differs from, contrasts with". Symbols are faster to write and easy to recognise later.
- Use your own abbreviations: drop vowels from familiar words ("gov" for government, "edu" for education), or write just the first 2–3 letters. What matters is that you understand them, not that they follow any standard system.
- Take notes in columns or diagrams: when a talk compares two ideas (say, advantages and disadvantages), split your page into two columns to note them side by side, which is easier to review than a single list.
- Write only nouns, figures and keywords: skip subjects, auxiliary verbs and articles. For example, hearing "the population increased by 20 percent between 2010 and 2020" only needs "population +20% (2010-2020)".
- Drop unnecessary connectors: words like "and, so, because" usually don't need writing down, since you can rebuild the logic yourself when you reread your notes, as long as the main points are there.
Applying it to Listening Part 3
Split your note page by question if you've already read the questions (you usually get a few seconds before the talk starts). While listening, jot down figures, names and transition words right away (for example, "however" or "on the other hand" signal a contrasting idea is coming). After listening, use your notes to confirm your answers instead of relying only on memory.
Applying it to Speaking Parts 2 and 3
During your preparation time, write 3-4 keywords for each point you plan to make, in the order you intend to present them. For Part 2 (choosing an option), note your choice and two short reasons. For Part 3 (developing a topic), note the main idea and one example per paragraph so you don't repeat yourself or lose a point while speaking.
3 common mistakes
- Writing too much, like dictation: trying to write almost full sentences, which makes you fall behind the talk and lose focus on meaning.
- Inconsistent symbols: using one symbol today and a different one tomorrow, so you can't read back your own notes later.
- Never practising before test day: note-taking is a skill that needs repeated practice to become fast and accurate; don't try it for the first time on exam day.
How to practise every day
- Listen to a short audio clip (2-3 minutes) and take notes while listening, then compare your notes with the transcript to see what you missed.
- Practise for Speaking: read a Part 3 Speaking prompt, spend one minute noting an outline in keywords, then speak from those notes.
- Keep a fixed set of symbols and abbreviations and reuse them every time you practise so they become second nature.
See also: VSTEP Listening Part 3 tips and VSTEP Speaking Part 3: topic development.