#efficent learning

Hello Everyone!

I hope you’ve all had a wonderful weekend!

Today I wanted to share my tips and experience in the jump from Sixth form/Highschool to University/College.

There is a lot of lessons I have learnt over my two years at university, So I think I might turn this into a little series! So, keep an eye out! But for this week, here are my tips and tricks for lecture theatre note-taking! Enjoy!

From Classroom notes to Lecture Theatre:

Determine whether you can type quicker than you can write. The pace of a lecture varies between lecturers. But you want to be prepared for the snails and the cheetahs. You want to gain an understanding from the lecture, concentrating on the content, not panicking what content you have missed. Do what works best for you, not what you think you should do.

Please DO NOT copy the lecture slides. Nine times out of ten, you will have access to your lecture slides after the lecture. But fewer universities record their lectures. Write down what the lecturer is saying! This information cannot be accessed quickly or at all after the lecture - So focus on it! Your notes do not need to be pretty/complete; they need to be informative!

Asterisk/make a note of sections you may have missed. No one is expecting you to pick up everything in a lecture. We all get sloppy, and sitting in lecture theatres for hours upon end can be exhausting. Mark it out, so you know to check your lecture recording when you go back over your notes or ask a friend if they took note of it. Personally, I use ‘PAN’ to mark out information.

Ask your friends for notes at APPROPRIATE times. If you are mid-way through a lecture, don’t start pestering your friend for the note you have missed. Wait for the interval or a break in the lecture. Otherwise, while your friend is helping you, they are also missing potentially vital information.

Write in short-hand. Use standard abbreviations and make up your own too! E.g. APC = Antigen Presenting Cell or Spec = Spectroscopy. You will find you are getting your notes down faster, so you have more time to spend paying attention to the lecturer. Make sure you note them down though, there is no point writing in abbreviations if you cant remember what they mean later!

Remember to put the date on your work. When you drop all your notes, and they go out of order, you’ll thank me for this one. It makes finding your notes a lot easier. Even if you are on a computer, date your work. It can help you keep track of lectures you’ve missed or content you have lost etc.

Separate your notes via lecture slide. Personally, I like to write my notes in paragraphed bullet points. So my notes for slide 1 are in consecutive bullet points, and then I add a double space for the next slide. This helps me keep track of my notes, without writing lots of sub-titles - which can become time consuming in fast paced lectures. See the example below, it’s a little clearer than my explanation... haha!

I know 7 tips is an odd number to finish on, but I don’t want to give out pointless tips, so I think I shall leave it here!

Just remember, that EVERYONE in the lecture is new to university life and is still learning to get the hang of things too. Lecturers understand this, you aren’t the first lot of freshers they have taught, and you won’t be the last. Ask questions, enjoy your subject, relax. Time will fly by before you know it!

As always, you’ve got this!💪

Speak soon,