How to Take Notes in Lectures

What lecture notes are actually for

Lecture notes do two jobs, and it helps to see them separately. The first happens in the room: deciding what matters and putting it in your own words forces you to process the lecture as it happens. The second happens weeks later: the notes are a record you study from, so they have to make sense when the lecture is a distant memory.

These jobs pull in different directions. Writing everything down makes a complete record but leaves no attention for thinking. Writing almost nothing keeps you engaged but leaves a page of cryptic fragments. Good lecture notes sit in between: enough structure and detail to rebuild the lecture, written in a way that made you decide what each point meant.

If your lecturer posts slides, the record job is partly done for you. That changes what your notes should contain — not the slide text, but the explanations, examples and connections the lecturer said aloud and the slides leave out.

Before the lecture: ten minutes of preparation

The most useful note-taking habit happens before you sit down. If you arrive knowing the topic and the main terms, you spend the lecture understanding rather than trying to spell unfamiliar words. You also notice when the lecturer says something that is not in the reading, which is often what ends up on the exam.

If you only have two minutes, do the last item. Knowing where the previous lecture ended tells you where this one is likely to begin.

• Skim the slides or handout if they are posted, looking only at headings, diagrams and bold terms.
• Read the assigned pages, or at least their introduction and summary, if the lecture follows a reading.
• Write the course, date and lecture number at the top of a fresh page so your notes file themselves.
• Jot two or three questions you expect the lecture to answer, and leave space beneath them.
• Glance at your notes from last time; lectures in a series build on each other, and the opening minutes often recap what you need.

How to take notes during a lecture

During the lecture, your job is to catch the structure and the substance, not the wording. Three habits do most of the work.

Lecture note-taking methods compared

There is no single best format; the right one depends on how the subject is taught. Most students do well with one main method and a backup for lectures that do not fit it.

For the full layout of the first method, see our guide to Cornell notes. For lectures built around relationships rather than sequences, mind mapping is worth trying, though it is harder to do at lecture speed than during review.

Laptop, tablet or paper for lecture notes?

You will see confident claims that handwritten notes are always better. The research on laptops versus handwriting is more mixed than the headlines, but one point holds up: notes help most when you process what you hear rather than transcribe it. A laptop makes verbatim typing easy and puts the rest of the internet one click away. If you type, write in your own words and close every other window.

Choose by subject as much as by preference. Math, chemistry, music theory and anything with diagrams or notation is usually faster by hand or with a stylus. Text-heavy subjects such as history, law or literature suit typing, especially if your handwriting is slow. Typed notes are easier to search; handwritten notes are easier to fill with arrows and sketches.

Recording a lecture can help you fill gaps, but check your institution's policy first, and plan to use the recording for specific moments rather than listening to the whole lecture twice. A recording is a backup, not a reason to stop taking notes.

After the lecture: the 24-hour review

This is the step that turns notes into learning, and the one most often skipped. While the lecture is fresh, you can decode your shorthand and fill gaps that will be impossible to fill in a month. It takes fifteen to twenty minutes.

The questions from the fourth step are what make the notes useful later. At exam time you will not reread pages of notes; you will answer your own questions, which is active recall. Bring the same questions back after a week or two and you are doing spaced repetition as well.

1. 1Within a day, read through your notes once and fix anything you cannot read or decode.
2. 2Fill the gaps you marked, using the slides, the reading or a classmate's notes.
3. 3Write a three- or four-sentence summary of the lecture at the bottom of the page, from memory first.
4. 4Turn each main point into a question in the margin, so the notes become something you can quiz yourself on.
5. 5Cover the notes, answer those questions, and star any you cannot answer.
6. 6Write down anything still unclear as a question for the next class, office hours or a study session.
7. 7File the notes with that week's reading, so revision means opening one place, not five.

Lecture note mistakes to avoid

Most weak lecture notes fail for one of a few reasons. If studying from your notes has been painful, check which of these applies.

• Copying slide text you already have, instead of writing what the lecturer adds.
• Trying to write every word, and missing the explanation while catching the sentence.
• Inventing abbreviations on the spot that you cannot decode a week later.
• Leaving no space, so there is nowhere to add corrections, cues or a summary.
• Not opening the notes again until the exam, when the gaps can no longer be filled.
• Recopying notes neatly as a substitute for studying; it feels productive but asks little of your memory.