In this study we explored the effect of notations that undergraduates produce on their reasoning abilities. Participants solved four analytical reasoning problems, making notes to solve two problems and solving two without notations. Most participants produced notes when given the opportunity. The production of higher quality notes did not aid performance when we compared the write and no write conditions and those producing poorer quality notes performed even worse in the write condition. The results suggest that students do not necessarily have adequate note-taking skills and that they may need instruction in the production and use of external representations. (Contains 2 figures.)