#lecture

Everyone has their own quirks. And you know what those are for you better than anyone else. And when it comes down to me, I have a few things I do.

• Don’t take notes in class. Well, not unless it’s completely necessary, like an equation with some key example that I can use for further reference. The reason why this works for me is that I see lectures like a conversation with my professor. If you’re in a conversation with your friend, you’re not going to type or write everything down. Instead, you try to follow what your friend is saying, right? You’re not going to remember everything, but you’re gonna remember the key aspects that make the story. I used to take notes in class but I noticed that I focused too much on taking notes instead of the actual content. 
• Take notes a day or two after your class. This will force you to recall what your professor said.  According to a psychologist, Jeffrey Karpicke, simply practising and recalling the material, students learn far more and at a much deeper level by recalling than using any other approach. First I like to write what I remember down on a page. After, I start reading the textbook and make notes at the margins of other examples or anecdotes the professor used. If I paid attention, all these things will pop up into my mind. Just trust your brain on this one, you’ll be surprised by how much you actually remember. (I certainly was!) And then I take these 2 notes and make my final notes on the subject.  
• Get your pets and talk to them (Or yourself). After I am done with the notes, I like to wait a day or two before I go back to them. I often open the book on the index page, where you see the chapter’s title, paragraph and sub-paragraphs and use this as a shortcut page to my presentation. I stand up before a whiteboard. I make sure Burger (my cute-ass doggo) and Mr Fantastic (my grumpy cat) are on my bed. I take a deep breath and I start explaining the concepts to them. The idea here is to recall and make sure you put the concepts into your own words. What do you remember? What is it about? Can you explain this with an example? What are the practical uses of said concept? Most importantly, use that whiteboard. It’ll make you feel like a professor and that you know your shit. Once I start talking, I’ll realise what information I truly don’t know. Then I’ll pick up my final notes and go through them and see if I talked about everything. After I’m done with my talk, Burger looks at me like “Shirou, where’s ma food?” and Mr Fantastic is fast asleep or looking at me like she truly can’t be bothered.
  

So experiment! See what works for you and what doesn’t. Not sure where to start? Then I truly recommend you to check the free online course on Coursera “Learning how to learn”. It truly helped me to lay a basis of getting my shit together.