HOW TO STUDY LECTURE NOTE

While technology has had a great impact on teaching and learning, many courses are still taught in lecture format. Taking good notes, and learning to make good use of them, then, is an essential skill for academic success, which will help tremendously in an increasingly competitive job market. In fact, research shows that students who take notes and thoroughly study those notes score higher on tests.[1] Yet learning how to study lecture notes requires good organization and preparation so that studying can be done efficiently and effectively.

*METHOD ONE OF FOUR:
Preparing for Lecture Note-Taking

1
Develop a system of organization. A well-organized set of lecture notes is one of the most important tools in your exam-studying arsenal. Scattered, lost, incomplete and non-sequential notes create stress and take up valuable time that could be spent studying, not scavenging. Here are a few ways to organize your notes to avoid these pitfalls.
Color-coordinate the folders and notebooks for each of your courses. For

example, buy a green notebook and folder for science, a blue notebook and folder for history, a red notebook and folder for literature and so forth. On the first page, write the title of the lecture and the date and begin taking notes. Start each subsequent lecture on a new page and again write the title and date. If you miss a class, leave several pages blank in your notebook, ask a friend or your teacher if you can get those notes and insert them into the blank pages.

Another way to organize your notes is by purchasing a three-ring spiral binder, loose-leaf paper, subject dividers and 3-ring pocket folders for handouts and assignments. For your first course, insert plenty of loose-leaf paper, then insert a 3-ring pocket folder and finally a divider. Repeat for the next course.

If you are on an alternating-day schedule, purchase two 3-ring binders. Put science and history in one and literature and art in the other, for example.
If your teacher allows you to use your laptop in class for taking notes, create a folder for each course. 

For each lecture, either a) start a new document and “save as” the date followed by an abbreviated title of the lecture (doing this will help when it comes time to study as you will be able to quickly see the order of the lectures by date) or b) create a running document, in which you type the title of the lecture and the date at the start of each lecture. Leave some space between lectures, and bold and enlarge the font of the lecture title and date so you can easily see when a new one begins.

2
Read assigned materials before going to class. Reading before class primes those all-important neural networks, kind of like warming up gets your body ready for a strenuous workout. It will help you better understand what the teacher is discussing, more quickly absorb and process additional material presented and more readily recognize particularly significant points (say, when your teacher spends 10 minutes talking about the poison dart frog, not the spotted salamander, in a lecture on amphibians). When reading, take down notes of those areas that are confusing. 

Look up terms you are unfamiliar with or that are not fully explained within the readings. Create questions that you can ask in class, if they are not clarified during the class period.

Sometimes teachers will make course materials available online, including lectures, readings and helpful resources. If not stated in the course syllabus, ask your teacher how to access these materials.
If your teacher uses electronic media in class but does not post it online, ask if he or she might do so.

3
Review previous lecture notes. Before going to class, review the previous lecture’s notes to refresh yourself on what was last discussed. Note any questions you have and raise them in class. Reviewing the previous lecture will also help you better follow along with what is presented that day, particularly if the lectures are cumulative, or built upon each other.

 It also will help you be a more active listener, which is particularly profitable in the retention- and recall-testing arena.
Doing this before each class meeting will have a multiplying effect, making all subsequent study efforts more, well, effortless.
It also has the added benefit of being ready for the often inevitable and generally dreaded pop quiz!

*METHOD TWO OF FOUR:
Using the 4 R’s: Review, Reduce, Recite and Reflect

1
Review your lecture notes strategically. Though reading, and rereading, lectures in a short time frame (often the day before the exam) is common practice, research has shown it is a very ineffective study strategy. 

Your mind is not, after all, a video recorder. Nonetheless, reading each set of lecture notes more than once is still very helpful, if done correctly. There are two ways to get the most benefit from reviewing your notes: spacing the time between studying and mixing up study topics.

Space out the time between studying each set of lecture notes. For example, read over your notes within 24 hours of taking them. If you do this, you will retain approximately 50% of the material. If you wait longer than 24 hours, however, you will only retain about 20% of the material. 

Then wait another week or two to read that lecture’s notes again and so forth.
While waiting to reread might sound counterintuitive (Won’t you forget a lot by waiting, after all?), cognitive psychologists have found that the closer you are to forgetting the material, the more you will cement the information to your long-term memory through the process of re-exposure and remembering.

Additionally, read your notes aloud. This converts a passive activity into an active one and creates auditory links in your memory pathways.

Mix up the topics you study. Let’s say you’ve set aside two hours of studying per day. Instead of spending an entire study session studying your notes from one class, spend a ½ hour studying one subject, a ½ hour studying another subject, and then repeat. Mixing up topics in this way (interleaving) requires a type of information reloading that forces your brain to notice similarities and differences – a higher order of information processing that leads to greater comprehension and long-term retention.

Part of this study technique’s modus operandi is that as soon as you begin to feel like you really know the material, you need to switch it up and work on something else for awhile. So put away that blue notebook and pull out the red one.

2
Reduce your notes. The same day as you take your notes, or shortly thereafter, summarize your notes. Identifying the key points, concepts, dates, names and examples provided in the lecture, write a summary of that lecture’s notes in your own words. 

Writing them in your own words will force you to flex those brain muscles. The more you flex them, the stronger they will become. (There really is truth to the adage, “If you don’t use it, you lose it!”) Finally, write down any questions you have related to the material so that you can seek further clarification.

Another way to do this is by constructing a concept map, which is a diagram that encourages critical thinking by visually showing relationships between concepts that help you organize and evaluate both the main ideas and supporting details presented in your lecture notes. The more connections you make between concepts, the more likely you are to both remember the material and to understand the “bigger picture,” a particularly useful ability for essay questions, essay exams and finals.

Of note: Recent research has found that, while students tend to record more of what the teacher says verbatim when using their laptops as typing is faster than writing, students who take written notes comprehend and retain more because taking notes by hand requires active listening and purposeful selection of what to write.

Nonetheless, many students still try to hand write everything the teacher says. To promote retention and efficiency in studying your notes, create an outline from your notes. It will make your likely copious notes more manageable and help move the information more quickly down those neural pathways toward cementation through the process of repeated exposure.

3
Recite the information in your notes. Review your notes, summary, concept map or outline for a few minutes. Then recite, aloud and in your own words, this information. Do this 2-3 times and then repeat at time intervals per the spacing effect guidelines.

Reciting is one of the most active means of studying and learning. It will help you discover the gaps in your memory and understanding, elaborate on the main ideas and concepts, test your overall comprehension and help you make connections between issues.

You can also create cue cards to use when reciting. Pick up a pack of unlined 3×5 or 4×6 notecards and write cue words (never full sentences) – or a main idea, date, diagram, formula or name – and begin discussing it aloud. If you’ve created them in order with, say your outline, shuffle them before reciting. This plays back to the idea that mixing up information forces your brain to work harder, thereby storing the information more securely.

4
Reflect upon your lecture notes. Reflection is the process of pondering or thinking deeply about content. Because we are more apt to remember things that we can personalize, reflecting upon what we’ve learned and how it relates to our experiences can be particularly helpful. 

Here are a few examples of questions you can ask yourself to enhance the reflective process. To get the most from reflection, record your answers in some way, whether that be through traditional writing, outlining, diagramming, audio recording or another means.
“Why are these facts important?”
“How can they be applied?”
“What else do I need to know to make the pieces all fit together?”
What experiences do I have that relate to this information?”
How does this all relate to what I already know or think about the world?”

METHOD THREE OF FOUR:
Utilizing Self-Testing as a Study Process

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TO BE CONTINUED…..
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