Attending a Lecture: Study Tips

Preparing and Reviewing a Lecture - Is It Really Necessary?

"Also plan sufficient time for preparing and reviewing the lecture." Surely every student has heard this statement before. Especially in the first semesters of their studies, lecturers repeat this advice over and over again. However, very few students actually follow it regularly.

But what's the point of this sentence? Perhaps there's some truth to it if it's repeated so often. After all, the lecturers were once students themselves, and they should know, right?

Preparing for a Lecture

When preparing for a lecture, many people don't know what they can actually do without learning the lecture material beforehand. The point of preparation isn't to learn something in advance, but to familiarize themselves with the topic so that they can better follow the lecture later. We'll now explain exactly what this might look like.

Organization is Everything

Prepare the materials you need. If you're working digitally, download the lecture notes/slides and make sure your device is charged. If this isn't the case, find a spot near a power outlet. Therefore, it's important to always arrive on time for the lecture, whether you're working digitally or analogically. This way, you can unpack everything in peace. If you're still using pen and paper, print out the lecture notes and jot down the module name, date, and topic on your notebook. This will prevent chaos when organizing your notes later. Distractions should also be eliminated before the lecture begins.

Get an Overview

First, read the lecture notes and/or slides sideways to get an overview. Pay particular attention to headings and key terms. If questions arise while reviewing the slides, write them down. This will help you follow the lecture attentively. By the end of the lecture, all your questions should be answered. Otherwise, don't be afraid to ask. As the saying goes: "...if you don't ask, you'll remain dumb."

If this isn't the first lecture in the module, review your notes from the last lecture. We'll come back to proper note-taking in the lecture later.

Technical and Key Terms

In addition to the questions, technical and key terms play an important role in your preparation. Therefore, highlight them so that you always have clues during the lecture about where it's especially important to listen attentively. If you don't understand technical terms from the context, it doesn't hurt to research them and write down the explanations in the lecture notes. When these terms are mentioned in the lecture, you won't get stuck thinking while the lecture continues.

Question Catalog

Take the old exam papers and write down the questions that have been asked more frequently in recent years. Compile them in a kind of question catalog. Leave some space between questions so you can jot down the answer in bullet points or at least point to where it can be found in the script/slides or your own notes.

Try to structure the questions according to the same format as the lecture. This will allow you to bring the relevant section of the question bank with you to the lecture when the topic is covered. If you notice during the lecture that a question from your question bank is being answered, you can write down the answer directly.

Taking Notes in Lectures

When you're in a lecture, don't just listen to the information, but listen actively. This way, you'll retain more information and have less to do later when reviewing it. The best way to achieve this is to take notes. But taking notes correctly isn't as easy as it might seem at first glance. It requires a lot of practice. Here are a few things to keep in mind.

Active Listening

Many students always complain that they are unable to take notes because everything moves too quickly. At some point, you reach a point where you're no longer actively listening, but simply writing. But active listening helps filter out essential information.

Supplementing the Script

Instead of taking notes, take a look at the script. Often, the professor only says what is already recorded in some form in the script. In this case, you should definitely not rewrite what was said, but rather supplement your script meaningfully so that the notes help you understand the subject matter. The goal is not to record the course of the lecture.

Less is more

Especially when there is no script at all and everything is still explained on the board in the traditional way, it makes sense to use abbreviations. Instead of "it follows," for example, you can use an arrow and simply abbreviate "and/or" with "&/o." The abbreviations don't have to be official abbreviations. All that matters is that you can still read the notes at the end. This also means that your notes only have to be legible, and this isn't a handwriting competition. So don't envy fellow students who manage to write quickly and beautifully at the same time.

Diagrams and Figures

Instead of copying diagrams precisely, which can take some time, you can roughly sketch them or photograph them and then neatly print them out in post-processing.

Don't get into the habit of photographing everything. Often, the images are saved unsorted, and you forget during post-processing that you photographed certain parts of the lecture. If you do take pictures, it's best to save them in the cloud in a directory created for the module, where all the other module materials are also located. This way, you can find everything again later.

Questions from the Instructor

As a final tip, remember to write down questions from the instructor. The questions often provide clues as to what might be tested in the exam.

Lecture Review

What does review actually mean?

In order to review a lecture effectively, you should be aware of the actual purpose of reviewing. The goal is to review the new learning content and clarify any remaining questions. Therefore, review should be done as close to the lecture as possible.

There are many methods for reviewing the lecture: writing summaries, creating flashcards, going through the script, and solving old exams/exercises. It's usually not enough to simply reread the script! This would involve dealing with the content too superficially.

Since the summary is the most common option, we'll discuss it in detail. As is almost always the case, a good mix of the individual options is most effective.

Writing a Summary

1. What should be included in a summary?

First, you should gather all the content so you don't accidentally forget anything. Collect the learning content from tutorials, exercises, and slides/scripts and don't discard what you already know or consider unimportant. This will prevent you from missing things that seem unimportant at first glance.

2. Sort the material

Now sort your materials by topic. This step is often unnecessary because everything is already well structured, especially with scripts. However, it still helps to always think about how you would structure the learning content. This is how you will ultimately learn everything later. At this point, it is useful to record this in the form of a mind map. Not the content, but only the topics themselves.

3. Set priorities and sort them out

The next step is to prioritize the content. What is important for the exam, what is less important, and what can you even leave out completely?

There is no recipe for figuring this out. Often, past exams and exercise sheets from the semester help you decide what might be relevant for the exam, as well as the spoken word and the time spent explaining a topic. If something is truly irrelevant to the exam, it will be stated in the slides or the lecturer/professor will mention it in the lecture. Therefore, it's always worth attending the lecture in the last 1-2 weeks of the lecture period, even if you haven't attended the lecture otherwise for some reason.

4. Create a Checklist

As an interim step, you can optionally create a checklist before actually writing the summary. Use this checklist to record important things you absolutely shouldn't forget. These could be formulas, definitions, dates, or proofs, for example.

5. Write the Summary

With steps 1-4, you've laid the foundation for a good summary. Here are five more tips you should keep in mind when writing the summary:

Why write summaries?

A summary is like an overview of the entire learning content, and you can always refer back to it. So, if you start regularly reviewing and summarizing the lecture during the lecture period, you'll have less stress before the exam. Summaries are also much shorter than the script and slides.

Why should I write my own summary?

If you don't write the summary yourself, the learning effect is lost. You don't delve deeper into the content and don't think about how to succinctly summarize important points. If you have time and aren't already in the exam phase, it's advisable to write one or two summaries yourself.

Why are your own words so important?

Using your own words in a summary is extremely important, as you're thinking about how you would explain something to someone. If you can explain something to someone, you've usually understood it yourself. If you just copy the phrases, you can simply skip the summary. Of course, there are courses or modules where the professor's wording is crucial, such as law.

How long should a summary be?

There is no set length. Summaries that rely heavily on factual knowledge will naturally be longer than those for an oral exam. However, you can use the following rule: a summary of a lecture should be approximately one to three pages long. It often helps to compare your own summary with others to determine whether it is too long or short.

A quick tip if your summaries are often too long: Always write your summary twice, even if it may sound very time-consuming at first. The second time you write it, you should try to use only three-quarters to one-half as many pages as the first time. Not by writing smaller, but by prioritizing more and getting to the point more succinctly. With a little practice, you will no longer need to write the summary twice.

What does a good summary look like?

A good summary isn't just black and white, but uses color in a targeted manner. For example, headings always have the same design, and definitions are enclosed in boxes. Important information immediately stands out, and a structure is recognizable that makes it easier to identify connections. Furthermore, the summary should be engaging, as you'll then enjoy using it for studying. Below is an excerpt from a summary showing what a good one might look like.

Hopefully, you've now realized how important preparation and follow-up, as well as taking notes in lectures, can be for your success in your studies. There are several ways to put this into practice. Which one you choose is up to you. The important thing is that you do it and make the exam period more pleasant in the future.

In addition to your own summaries, you can also share materials with your classmates on Studydrive.

Here you'll find countless free study materials, exercise sheets, and solutions to past exams, and you can exchange ideas with other students.

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