Learning from Lectures: Study Skills

Preparing for your lecture 

Learning new material, taking effective notes, and staying focused in lectures can be a challenge for your cognitive load. Take a look through our tips to help you get ready for your lectures. Being prepared will make it easier for you to participate, stay focused, and decide what to make note of!

Review the module

• Read your module handbook or module information. You don’t necessarily need to do this every week, but this will establish an overview of the information to be covered and how the lectures fit into the course as a whole.
• Understand the module aims and learning outcomes. It really helps to see the bigger picture of what you need to know or achieve by the end of the module.

Engage with the topics and materials 

• Review your weekly pre-reading or pre-activities. This will highlight key learning areas for the lecture and offer background or supporting information. Most instructors will provide a reading list on their Blackboard page.
• Preview your lecture slides. If these are available in advance, glance through the slides beforehand or print the slides off. This will help to familiarise you with the material and give you a heads-up on what to expect.

Understand the connections between lectures 

• Remind yourself of previous lectures. You can review your notes from lectures or slides from previous weeks.
• Jot down any questions you have from your preparation that you can ask in the lecture.

During your lecture

Once you are prepared, there are some key areas to consider to make the most out of your lecture, including how you best concentrate, how you can listen and what information is important to record.

Tips for concentration 

• Sit somewhere you will be able to concentrate. Are you more able to focus when you sit alone? Do you feel better sat with friends? Where can you see and hear most clearly? Where are you most comfortable? The space that works best for you may vary from one lecture theatre to the next, so mix it up to find your perfect fit.
• Turn off any distractions. For example, set your phone to 'Do Not Disturb' mode. If you use a laptop for notetaking, consider using a browser blocker and/or focus settings to prevent access to distracting websites/apps until the lecture is over.
• If you find you get distracted often, make a note of what is distracting you. You could use your notes to help you find solutions to distractions.

Active listening

• Listen to how ideas are organised (for example, the introduction, main arguments, supporting information, summary).
• If you do not understand a word, phrase, or idea, that is okay. Make a note of this and continue listening to the rest of the content. You can listen for context to try understand the content. If you are not sure of the word, listen to the following explanation.
• Pay attention to non-verbal communication, like body language and tone.

What is important to record 

• Make note of unfamiliar concepts and ideas.
• Define key terms.
• Record dates, statistics, and helpful examples.
• Stay alert for phrases or words that...
  • signal importance (e.g. crucially, significantly, essentially);
  • indicate the order of information (e.g. first, initially, finally); or
  • show counterarguments or concessions (e.g. however or nonetheless).
• Mark any points that your lecturer repeats or pauses on, as they may be conveying something central to the material or argument.
• Make note of any summary and/or conclusion offered at the end of the lecture, trying to put it into your own words to aid comprehension.

The self-paced module Making Notes During Lectures will help you refine your methods for actively listening and recording information during class. Select 'University of Southampton' as your institutional log-in.

After your lec​​​​​​ture 

The final part of your lecture is what you do after. Adding these steps into your post-lecture routine will strengthen your understanding, and it will help you to study efficiently for assessments and exams. 

Post-lecture tips 

• Clarify anything you are not clear on. If you are not sure of any of the material, look on Blackboard for resources provided by the module lead and instructors, talk to your lecturer or peers, or plan independent research and use resources (e.g. books, journals, videos).
• Do short and frequent revision. Reviewing lecture slides and your own notes on a regular basis will aid your recall once essays and exams arrive. Look up 'spaced practice' or 'spaced repetition' online to learn more.
• Make your own study tools. These could be digital flashcards, physical flashcards, lists of key terms, mind maps: anything goes! Try to customise the tools to your preferred way to revise as you discover more about yourself as a learner.

Reviewing your notes

• Review your notes after the lecture. This could be on the same day or within a couple of days. This will help you with study sessions, as reviewing your notes to understand the content is more effective for long term retention, compared to cramming.
• Add to your notes. Fill in the gaps, add clarifications or expand on the material. If any points are not clear, talk to your peers or your lecturer, or research the points.                                 
• Organise your notes. For digital notes, create a logical file system (the tips in our video Using Digital Notebooks to Manage Academic Sources may help with this). For paper notes, use notebooks and binders.
• Revisit the content. You could watch the recordings or read the slides.

Notetaking 

You may have heard about both notetaking and notemaking during your study. The key difference is that you take notes during your lectures or seminars when writing down what other people say for future reference. You make notes when reading from other sources, such as journals and books. You can learn more about notemaking on our Notemaking skills guide.

Techniques and tips for notetaking

• If you have permission, record the lecture.
• Be concise and specific. You do not need to transcribe the whole presentation: think about key words, dates, and names. You can fill in details later.
• Use abbreviations, symbols, bullet points or shortened phrases. This can capture information and needs less time than complete sentences. This will help with active listening!
• Jot down your questions and thoughts. This can help you to clarify anything you are not clear of after the lecture.
• You can use visual techniques. Use colour, underlining, capitalising, or highlighting. This will help you think critically about what information is significant.
• Try drawing or doodling! This can help boost retention and prevent the temptation to write everything down or get distracted.

Which notetaking format should I use?

• Linear notes – Generally, this means that the notes are written texts which go down a page, with heading and non-headings.
• Non-linear notes or pattern notes – Generally, this means visual notes such as mind maps, diagrams, or flowcharts.
• Combination – Some notetaking methods have a combination of both of these features, such as the Cornell method.

You can choose to use the notetaking style that works best for you. The main aim of your notes is to make the key points clear and to show connections between the points so you can review your notes later.

You could use elements of the techniques in all the different methods, such as headings, underlining, capitalising, and highlighting.

Further resources

If you are still figuring out the notetaking style that works best for you, consider exploring these resources to learn more:

• The Open University's notetaking techniques page has further guidance about line diagrams, system maps, and more.
• The UoS Student Disability and Inclusion team offers a suite of resources to support study skills for lectures, including overviews of several notetaking techniques and a list of helpful symbols for notetaking (folder visible to UoS students only).