Reviewing Your Notes

Another note-taking "best practice" is to review your notes as soon as possible.

1. Review within twenty-four hours after a lecture or your retention will drop sharply.
2. Should you recopy your notes? Some people benefit from rewriting or recopying their lecture notes. However, be sure to allow time to think about your notes. Experiment and find out what works best for you. Copying without thinking about (or revising) notes does not necessarily aid retention. Manipulating the material by reorganizing and putting it into your own words, however, does lead to better retention.
3. Use margin space to fill in abbreviations, add omitted points, correct errors, and write key words. Read notes to be sure you can clarify confusing or illegible material.
4. Fill in further facts and examples while the lecture is still fresh in your mind.
5. Clear up misunderstandings and fill in missing information by consulting the lecturer, classmates, the text(s), or other reference materials.
6. As you read your notes: underline, highlight, or mark points you will want to give special attention to when you study the material again for the exam.
7. Elaborate on your notes. Compare the information to what you already know. Write additional information from the text into notes.
8. Connect concepts to see the "big picture"—think of a summary in your head or write it at the end of your notes.
9. Practice reciting the information using only key words.
10. Talk with other students about the lecture.
11. Conduct short weekly review periods. Once a week, go through all your notes again. Put reviews on your calendar and make it a habit.