人类瞬时记忆的有限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，而且是势在必行了。
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 |