Lectures are a key part of university life for many students. There’s a good chance that you’ll be spending a lot of time in them. The key to making the most out of your lectures, as well as any revision and further study, is to make good lecture notes. 

Too many of us don’t make good lecture notes, meaning we can sometimes struggle when it comes to reading back over them. Read on for our advice on how to make better lecture notes.

Keep it brief

Too often, it can be tempting to just write down everything that’s on a lecture slide. You’ll often find yourself writing a page full of scribbles. And you miss the last part as the lecturer changes slides. 

Firstly, how are you going to remember anything? If you don’t take a look at what is in front of you and decide what you need to make a note of? Secondly, you do know that these lecture slides will be available online later, right? Make things easier for yourself and keep it brief. 

Hands off the highlighter

This is another bad habit that I think a lot of us are guilty of doing. If you want to make better lecture notes, lay off the highlighter. If you’re highlighting every part of a slide or handout, how is that going to make the key points stand out? You’re only making things harder for yourself here.

Type up your notes

Typing up your notes after your lecture is a great way to make sure what you’ve written down makes sense. You can also check to see if you’ve managed to take note of all the key points. 

However, the best part of typing up your notes is that it’ll give yourself a better chance of remembering what you’ve said. Typing up your notes is a great way to reinforce information, giving you a better chance of remembering it.

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