Home Guides Taking Effective Notes After the Lecture

Introduction

Before the Lecture

During the Lecture

Example

Listening Hints During the Lecture

After the Lecture

The Cornell System for Note Taking

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Step 4

Taking Notes During Discussions

Using Notes to Write Papers

Using Notes to Study for Exams

Additional Resources

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Authors & Contributors

After the Lecture

What you do after the lecture is just as important as what you do during the lecture.

• Fill in the gaps by asking classmates, the teacher, or the TA what you need clarified.
• Consider swapping notes with classmates to see what they wrote down.
• Check spelling of crucial names/terms or other important information.
• Don't recopy your notes (a waste of time because your brain goes on automatic pilot).
• Instead of recopying your notes, review them within 24 hours. (Short-term memory deteriorates quickly, and you lose 50%-80% of the material if you don't review.)
• Annotate your notes. (Mark what's important, add page numbers from textbook, etc.)
• Fill out the "Recall" column if you're using the Cornell system.
• Employ some critical thinking techniques to help the new information stick--summarize, synthesize with info from previous lectures/textbook/your life, find relationships, decide whether you agree/disagree, devise sample test questions based on the lecture, predict what the next lecture/reading will cover, etc.