Writing down notes for Math is a little different to most other subjects. While curriculum across subjects might seem similar at face value ordered by topics which may tie into each other as you go on, note-taking for Maths is different both structurally and fundamentally.

Whether you write on paper or online, how you structure your notes will change when it comes to Math. When it comes to identities, formulas, and rules, your explanations rely less on long sentences and more on mathematical reasoning. Especially within calculus, as you progress through each topic, you care less about how you would verbally explain a concept, and more about how you would derive it.

So how do you show this shift in how topics should be described? You rely on the mathematics more than the words. Use graphs, diagrams, and short annotations to support what you’re doing, but the central part is the actual proof or derivation itself. Your notes should not just state a rule they should show how that rule follows from earlier principles. This helps build intuition and also strengthens long-term retention.

Obviously, this doesn’t apply equally to all branches of Math. Linear algebra, for example, is more about explaining structures and relationships vectors, spaces, transformations so your notes may involve more written descriptions. Statistics often requires contextual interpretation. But even in these topics, the same principle holds: the mathematics should do most of the talking.

The goal of good Math notes isn’t to produce a wall of text. It’s to create a logical trail of ideas that you can revisit and immediately understand. You’re just trying to show your clear steps, clean working, justified conclusions, and diagrams where helpful will always beat paragraphs of explanations. It’s about understanding at first, but in courses, once you get the intuition, your notes are what help you come back to those topics, it’s not about completely relearning, but refreshing your understanding.

Felix Panizza