人类瞬时记忆的有限性，可以用速记方式加以弥补。新托福考试增加的口语部分就允许考生在听、读的同时作些笔记。这对考生在紧张的状态下产生的“听时明白听后忘；读时明白读完忘”的现象确实是一个有益的帮助。快而准的笔记能帮助考生准确地回忆刚刚读到、听到的内容，进而使考生能用恰当的语言准确地回答问题以取得满意的成绩。因而，培养一种高效的速记能力在新托福考试中不仅显得至关重要，而且势在必行。
考试中运用怎样的速记方法因人而异，你甚至可以自创一套独特的、只有自己可以辨认的速记符号，但关键的问题是你的速记要有助于你迅速而准确地回想起一次性听到的、读到的东西。所以，“快”而“准”就成了迅速记笔记所应遵循的准则。
下面就为大家列举一些常用的笔记符号：
Symbol | Meaning |
→ | go on, continue, last, lead to, cause, result in, make, produce, stretch, develop, to the right |
← | come from, result from, go back, withdraw, shorten, to the left |
↑ | go up, increase, rise, raise, get up, arise, evaporate, fly |
↓ | go down, decrease, lower, reduce, decline, sediment, save up, deposit |
∵ | because |
∴ | so, therefore, thus |
＋ | plus, and also, in addition |
－ | minus |
× | times |
＝ | equal, equal to, is |
≠ | not equal, not equal to, is not |
～ | about, approximately, probably, more or less |
＞ | larger than, bigger than, greater than, more than |
＜ | smaller than, less than |
％ | percent |
∕ | per |
# | number |
& | and, |
@ | at, each |
§ | section |
？ | question |
$ | dollar, money, cost, price |
￥ | RMB(人民币) |
pound(英镑) | |
℃ | Centigrade |
℉ | Fahrenheit |
© | copy right |
registered | |
" | trade mark |
eo | Euro(欧元) |
p | page |
¶ | paragraph |
no. | number |
ft | foot, feet |
2 | to, two, too |
ht | height |
wt | weight |
w/ | with(something) |
w/o | without |
w/i | within |
i.e. | that is |
e.g. | for example, for instance, like, such as |
etc. | et cetera, so on , so forth |
b/c | because |
b/f | before |
esp. | especially |
min. | minimum |
max. | maximum |
govt | government |
asap | as soon as possible |
rt | right |
wrt | write |
yr | year, |
yrs | years |
vs | versus |
ans | answer |
diff | difference, different |
作记录并不等于毫无遗漏地将听到看到的每一个词都记录下来，那既是不必要的，也是不现实的、不可能的，特别是在新托福的口语考试中。作记录应着重那些能反映关键信息的关键词，能反映中心意义的核心句。先将它们符号化，然后再将这些符号还原成先前听到或读到的内容。请看下面的例子：
例如：
In 1337, a terrible war began between England and France, and this war continued for almost a hundred years.
记录：1337，E war F → 100yrs
速记实际上是我们突破记忆障碍的一种手段，是对记忆的一种补充，是对自己的一种提醒，因此，在作记录时应注意：
1、所运用的符号应尽量简单，要便于快速书写；
2、自己创建的缩略语、符号等自己要能识别；
3、要按听、读材料的内容顺序记录关键词和关键信息；
4、作成的笔记可以串成与材料内容相符的句子；
5、平时要多练习，保证眼耳手嘴并用，听说读写结合，并严格按考试要求的时间操练。
