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下產生的“聽時明白聽后忘;讀時明白讀完忘”的現象確實是一個有益的幫助。快而準的筆記能幫助考生準確地回憶剛剛讀到、聽到的內容，進而使考生能用恰當的語言準確地回答問題以取得滿意的成績。因而，培養一種高效的速記能力在新托福考試中不僅顯得至關重要，而且是勢在必行了。
考試中運用怎樣的速記方法因人而異，你甚至可以自創一套獨特的、只有自己可以辨認的速記符號，但關鍵的問題是你的速記要有助于你迅速而準確地回想起一次性聽到的、讀到的東西。所以，“快”而“準”就成了迅速記筆記所應遵循的準則。
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 |