Category: Learning & Studying

Reading Time: 4 minutes

As a long-time tutor and education blogger, you might think my answer to this question would be a resounding “Yes!” but it’s actually not that simple.

For most students, most of the time, taking notes during a lecture is a helpful practice. Writing helps you remember what you’re trying to learn. Taking notes helps you stay focused on the lecture (rather than spacing out or checking your phone). And the notes can serve as a useful reference when studying or doing homework. But even this standard advice comes with an important caveat:

Taking Notes Takes Practice

When you’re a beginner at note-taking, it’s very difficult to simultaneously write and listen. Some students complain, “When I take notes, I just can’t hear the teacher as well or track the visuals as well.” And that’s a fair point because it’s a biological reality that we can’t multitask. So becoming better at note-taking requires learning to switch our attention rapidly from listening and watching to thinking and writing, back to listening and watching … over and over again.

If you’re a beginner, you should expect to be bad at this. And the only way to get better is through practice.

The good news is that you can always come back later and improve your notes. Most teachers put their lecture slides online, so you don’t have to sweat it if you miss something during class. You can also cross-reference your notes (and build on them) using the textbook, YouTube videos, and your classmates’ notes.

Are Some Students Better Off Just Listening?

Actually, yes.

If you have a slow processing speed, taking notes during a lecture might be a bad fit. It’s okay to simply listen to the lecture, focusing on following along and “getting it” rather than capturing the important information on paper.

Since there are resources available outside of class, you can build notes at home, at your own pace. This can be a great fit for students with dysgraphia.

Some students with ADHD just wind up doodling when they attempt to take notes, which can distract them from the lecture. (For others, the act of note-taking helps them focus, so there’s not a one-size-fits-all approach.)

Another option I really like is taking notes at home before the lecture. Use online resources or the textbook to preview what the teacher will cover in class, making notes at your own pace. Then, when the teacher is explaining it, you’ll already be well on your way to understanding and remembering it. You’ll also already know which areas are particularly confusing, so you’ll be prepared to ask questions. Don’t worry if you don’t have time to preview the whole topic in detail; it’s a great idea to start with the summary.

So no, you don’t need to take notes during the lecture. But if you don’t, you should take notes at home before and after the lecture. Furthermore, practicing at home will make you better at taking notes in class.

Understand the Purpose of Notes

Most students confuse the idea of having notes with the idea of making notes. If you have notes, you have a reference with some useful information on it. It could just as easily be a photocopy from the teacher. But having the information on paper is very different from having the information in your brain, and that usually requires making notes.

Making notes helps convince your brain to remember whatever you’re studying. It’s about the action as much as the product. The challenge of filtering what’s worth writing from what isn’t requires thinking, which translates into deeper learning.

The goal isn’t to write down everything, but to capture some key information, record some cues for the story you’re trying to learn, and create a scaffold onto which memories can be built. Any sort of written product helps – pictures, diagrams, mind-maps, timelines – so you’re not just limited to words.

Lastly, taking notes isn’t a one-and-done event. You can annotate your notes as you come across new information. You can rewrite your notes, synthesizing what you’ve learned from different sources. You can test yourself by brain dumping your notes from scratch. And anytime during your studies or homework that you realize you’ve forgotten something important, write it down again, even though you already took notes on it.

The notes you take in class aren’t meant to be a finished product, so they don’t need to be perfect. They’re a stepping stone on your learning path.

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Reading Time: 2 minutes

“Facts are important, but facts don’t create learning. Stories do.

A story fits into (and changes) our understanding of the world. Good teachers are storytellers, and storytellers are teachers.

Notes, then, aren’t recitations of facts. They’re story prompts. A good note reminds you of a story that you already understand.” –Seth Godin¹

Imagine you’re in a history lecture, and the teacher is describing the French Revolution to you in detail. Should you attempt to write everything they’re saying?

Of course not. Few people could take notes at the pace of the lecture, and even if they could, it wouldn’t be wise. Your job as a notetaker is to record some key facts and figures, to sketch an outline of the events, to build a framework on paper that serves as a reminder of the story you’re absorbing as you listen.

Later, if you were to look back at your notes, they would not contain the knowledge you need. Instead, they would contain cues to the story that’s supposed to be in your head. Use those cues to practice remembering and retelling the story. If you find that there are holes in your story, use a reference (like a textbook, the lecture slides, or a YouTube video) to fill in the gaps.

Later still, hide your notes and retell the story as you rewrite your notes – your cues – on a blank sheet of paper. When you can perform this brain dump while simultaneously weaving a coherent tale of the events, you’re ready for your test.

The same approach applies to a biology lecture about photosynthesis, a math lecture about the logic of the unit circle, or a Spanish lecture about how to use the subjunctive tense. Your notes should contain some key facts, formulas, diagrams, or rules. But you never need to write down all of the words conveyed in a lecture or a textbook passage. The end goal is to be able to recall them without your notes. And to do that, it helps to have a story to tell.

¹Godin, Seth. “Take good notes.” Seth’s Blog. November 15, 2024.

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Every other week, we publish a new article with helpful ideas and strategies for parents, educators, and students.

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