1. Consider your purpose for notetaking. How will you use these notes? To study for a quiz? For ideas for a paper? To participate in class discussion? Good notes are useful notes. The way you plan to use your notes will help you decide what form they should take, and what constitutes “important” information.

2. Learn about the lecture. Read the lecture title, the name of the lecturer, and the assigned reading. What information can you find on the topic in a quick internet search? What is the speaker's main area of expertise? What are the main concepts from the reading?

3. Read your notes from the last lecture. What are the major themes in the course so far? What ideas and keywords keep appearing? How might this lecture relate to past lectures?

4. Make sure you understand the keywords. Look up more information about any keywords in the title and assigned reading that you think will be important to understanding the lecture. Write the definitions down at the top of your notes so you can refer to them during the lecture.

5. Consider your viewing conditions. Set yourself up early, at least 10 minutes in advance. Can you hear and see well? 

1. Stay focused. You only get one chance to listen to the lecture, so work hard to stay focused on it. If you’re viewing online from home, close doors and silence your phone. Resist all distractions! 

2. Listen for what you can understand. A lot of information will be given in the lecture and you should listen for what you are able to take from it. Do not get discouraged if you feel like you’ve missed something; learning from lectures is a process. 

3. Paraphrase. Don't worry about writing in full sentences or having correct grammar. As long as you can understand them later, the notes are useful! Your notes are not graded for grammar or syntax.

4. Prioritize important information. Don't try to write everything you hear, or copy down everything that's on the slides - you won't be able to keep up! What are the most important points? Is the speaker emphasizing or repeating anything? Are there keywords that you don't want to forget?

5. Organize your notes strategically. Leave space to write additional notes, questions, and keywords as you go. Use symbols or arrows to show connections between ideas without having to rewrite. If you miss something the professor said, leave a blank space. If you hear an important word you don’t recognize, write it down phonetically (based on its sounds). Draw a star or question mark next to things you want to follow up on after the lecture.

6. Write in any language. Remember, the point of taking notes is for you to use them: if it is faster or more useful to write a certain idea in a different language than English, do it!

1. Fill in the gaps. Right after class, go back to the places in your notes where you left a blank, or drew a star or question mark. See if you can fill in the gaps yourself. If you can't, ask a classmate to help you clarify or define, or make a list of questions and bring them to your seminar or office hours to ask your professor.

2. Summarize. At the bottom of your notes, write a quick 2-to-3 sentence summary of what the lecture was about. This will help you remember the main points in the future, as well as organize your notes.

3. Generate questions. At the bottom of your notes, write 2 questions that the lecture made you think of. Save these for class discussion or for potential essay topics.

4. Investigate any references. Did the lecture reference important people or facts you didn’t know, or concepts you didn’t understand? Write a list of them. You may want to do some research or discuss the lecture with others, either in seminar or outside of class.

5. Add words to your vocab list. Add any other important keywords that came up from the lecture to the top of your notes, along with those you wrote before class. These will help when it comes to studying for a quiz or test, or participating in class. You can even consider putting all vocabulary words from the whole semester into a separate vocabulary notebook or Word document.

If you have access to a recording of the lecture, listen a second time. Fill in the blank spaces that you left in your notes. If after listening for the second time, you still have questions, it is time to ask your professor or classmates.

Warning: do not try to understand every word, and do not pause the recording to catch up on every moment — this would be too exhausting and time-consuming. Limit yourself to 60 minutes for repeating the lecture. 

Item descriptionSpeakers naturally emphasize and repeat important information, and you will sharpen your skills by listening in for these clues. If you have access to a transcript, consider waiting until you have completed the listening process to read it. As for captions, they can be very helpful and depending on your language level you may or may not need them. If you are unsure, try listening without them for the first round.