A lecture is not like a DVD. For one thing, you can’t hit the pause button. For another thing, if you’re not giving the lecture your full attention, you will miss something important and not even realize it. So when you’re in class, don’t talk to your friends, send text messages or search the Web for pictures of adorable kittens doing adorable things.
It’s crucial that you take good notes in class. There’s a balance to note taking: On the one hand, you want your notes to be accurate and complete; on the other hand, you don’t want them to be a transcript, because then the really important things are hard to find. Elliot Aronson, who became one of the greatest social psychologists in the field, wrote this about his first term in college: “I discovered that I had never learned how to be a student. I didn’t even know the first thing about taking notes. I would sit in class, listening to the lecture, scribbling furiously. By the time midsemester exams came around, I pulled out my lecture notes and found they were virtually unintelligible.”
While you’re listening to your instructor, think about how what you’re hearing is connected to what you already know. Write down key words and phrases, not full sentences and paragraphs the way a court reporter would. The act of sifting through what you’re hearing and distilling it into its important components will help make that information more meaningful.
You may be thinking that if instructors let you record their lectures or post their slides online, you don’t have to do any note taking. But recordings and slides won’t do your thinking for you, and they don’t have to take the exams, either.
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