人類瞬時記憶的有限可以用速記方式加以彌補。新托福考試增加的口語部分就允許考生在聽、讀的同時作些筆記。這對考生在緊張的狀態(tài)下產(chǎn)生的“聽時明白聽后忘;讀時明白讀完忘”的現(xiàn)象確實是一個有益的幫助�？於鴾�(zhǔn)的筆記能幫助考生準(zhǔn)確地回憶剛剛讀到、聽到的內(nèi)容，進(jìn)而使考生能用恰當(dāng)?shù)恼Z言準(zhǔn)確地回答問題以取得滿意的成績。因而，培養(yǎng)一種高效的速記能力在新托福考試中不僅顯得至關(guān)重要，而且是勢在必行了。
考試中運用怎樣的速記方法因人而異，你甚至可以自創(chuàng)一套獨特的、只有自己可以辨認(rèn)的速記符號，但關(guān)鍵的問題是你的速記要有助于你迅速而準(zhǔn)確地回想起一次性聽到的、讀到的東西。所以，“快”而“準(zhǔn)”就成了迅速記筆記所應(yīng)遵循的準(zhǔn)則。
下面就為大家列舉一些常用的筆記符號：
| 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(人民幣) |
| ₤ | pound(英鎊) |
| ℃ | Centigrade |
| ℉ | Fahrenheit |
| © | copy right |
| ® | registered |
| ™ | trade mark |
| eo | Euro(歐元) |
| 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 |