How to Enjoy & Remember Every Lecture | Eran Katz | TEDxWhiteCity, by TEDx Talks on YouTube. 5 min 46 s.
- Video length
- 5 min 46 s
- Time to do it
- 15 minutes
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Steps
- 9
What you need
Steps
Spend ten minutes before the lecture skimming the slides or assigned reading. Familiar terms are much easier to follow and to remember later.
Sit near the front, put your phone on airplane mode and open a fresh page. Write the date, topic and lecturer at the top.
Draw a wide margin down the left side of the page. You will use it later for key words and questions.
Note the main idea, key terms and one example per point in your own words. Do not try to write every sentence the speaker says.
Use short forms and symbols such as arrows, plus signs and equals signs to keep pace with the speaker.
Put a question mark in the left margin whenever you lose the thread, then keep going instead of stopping to puzzle it out.
In the last two minutes, write a three-sentence summary at the bottom of the page. This forces you to decide what mattered.
Within 24 hours, turn each main point into a question in the left margin and answer it from memory without looking at your notes.
Check your answers, fill the gaps, then test yourself again after one week and again after one month.
Tips and common mistakes
Handwriting beats typing for recall because you cannot write fast enough to copy word for word, so you summarise instead.
Chase down every question mark before the next lecture, or the gaps pile up and the later material stops making sense.
Reviewing for ten minutes the same evening saves far more time than rereading everything the night before an exam.
If you miss a point, leave a blank space and fill it from the slides or a classmate rather than losing the next three minutes.
Questions
What if the lecturer talks too fast to write anything?
Write only the headings and key terms during the talk, leave space under each one and fill in the detail afterwards from the slides or recording. You are building a skeleton, not a transcript.
How long should I spend reviewing notes?
About ten minutes the same day, five minutes after a week and five minutes after a month. Short, spaced reviews beat one long cramming session.
Do I need a special note-taking system?
No. A page with a wide left margin for questions and a summary line at the bottom is enough, and you can add symbols or colours later if they help you.
This guide was drafted from the video's details and general task knowledge. It has not been checked against the full video. Check the video and relevant product instructions before following a procedure. Report a correction.
