Reading and notetaking

Reviewing helps to solidify your learning.  It is especially helpful to do multiple reviews spaced out across time.  

When you review your notes the first time it is important to evaluate the quality and suitability of your notes.  This first review will also be important because it will help you to see how your learning is connected to what your previous knew, which is a powerful memory strategy. 

Link it to what you already know

As soon as you have read a section and made the appropriate notes/actions, consider the following question: 

• How does the text fit into your course outline? 
• How does it relate to the last lecture or how do you expect it to be applied in your next tutorial?, or 
• How does this relate to the assessment task you have?  
• Where does it fit in with your work or personal history?

Evaluate the quality of your notes 

For any of the readings tasks you should also be able to reflect on these questions:

• How did I answer my questions with these notes? 
• How does this material connect with other information I have gathered? 
• Could I reread these notes and not need to go back to the larger text to clarify a point? Your notes should be detailed but succinct. 
• Consider if your notes are organised in a logical way.

Here are some practical tips to make the most of your review stage:

• Identify areas in your notes that need clarification. 
• Reflect on new words you have learnt (hint: try to use them in a conversation). 
• Notice learnings which you felt were absorbed easily.  
• Recognise topics which you still feel unsure about. 
• Use the questions you prepared in earlier steps to test your knowledge. 
• At a later time, perhaps 24 hrs later, write a short summary of what you remember from the text. If you feel you are forgetting something important, go back and check with the text.
• If preparing for an exam, recite and repeat the main points frequently to help remember.  Use the questions you had prepared in earlier steps to test your knowledge. 
• Ensure that you are using your notes to review, not re-reading whole texts!
• Stage your reviews to take advantage of the forgetting curve.  Check out Spaced repetition below.

After you have been to your lectures and tutorials, you might like to combine each of these notes into a single short-form summary.  This summary would be helpful as a quick guide to what is included in each topic and might be helpful for exam preparation. 

Spaced repetition is the idea that learning occurs best when there is some time between reviews.  It is a method for reviewing at systematic intervals. It is based on the Forgetting Curve. 

A suggested spaced repetition schedule based on the 2 3 5 7 revision rule.  It suggests that students review their notes on the day the notes were created, then review again on Day 2, Day 3, Day 5 and Day 7. 

Another strategy you might use is the 1:1:1 strategy where you review on Day 1, then one week later, then one month later.  This can be extended to another review at 1 year.  This strategy is most effective when you move to the new interval once you feel you have a high degree of competence for the learning.  Therefore, only move your timed review to the 1 month schedule once you have successfully retrieved the information correctly at the weekly review.