How should you take notes when studying?

Note format (questions, Cornell, lists), handwriting versus typing, notes as recall material.

Axis: notes as questions for recall … notes copied from the textbook

Answers by date: 24 records in 14 sources, newest first; the answers above are the current ones. shift and revise mean the advice changed; tension — speakers disagree.

date	who	answer	source
2018-06-12	Ali	Ali advises making a few mnemonics and active links between topics while making notes: they increase the cues available for recall and strengthen the memory, so you are more likely to remember it in an exam.	Study with me + The Magic of Categorisation - Cambridge University medical student VLOG #38 00:02:40
2018-06-12	Ali	Ali says a mistake people sometimes make, and one he used to make, is thinking that the act of making notes puts the material into your brain.	Study with me + The Magic of Categorisation - Cambridge University medical student VLOG #38 00:02:11
2018-06-02	Ali	Typed notes are accessible and synced, but with a fast typing speed, Ali says, you just transcribe what the lecturer says and take little in.	How I take notes on my iPad Pro in medical school - Cambridge University medical student 00:01:48
2018-06-02	Ali	Ali takes notes on an iPad with the Apple Pencil because he thinks it combines the advantages of handwritten and typed notes and removes the disadvantages of both.	How I take notes on my iPad Pro in medical school - Cambridge University medical student 00:00:36
2018-05-28	Ali	Ali does not really endorse note-taking as a revision strategy in itself but finds it really useful while attending a lecture or watching a video.	Study with Me + How I take notes - Cambridge University medical student VLOG #36 00:05:59
2018-05-28	Ali	Ali's first note-making tip: split a topic into numbered lists rather than bullet points, so that when explaining it or thinking it through you can say there are, say, four main things to know.	Study with Me + How I take notes - Cambridge University medical student VLOG #36 00:01:10
2018-05-21	Ali	Ali says making notes is not inherently productive: at GCSE and A level he felt productive making notes, but now he treats it as probably suboptimal and uses notes actively to learn.	Study with me + More revision tips - Cambridge University medical student VLOG #34 00:04:52
2018-05-21	Ali	Ali makes his own notes only when there is no easily accessible summary, to write down mnemonics, which he loves making for lists, and to categorise things.	Study with me + More revision tips - Cambridge University medical student VLOG #34 00:00:58

More answers (16)

date	who	answer	source
2018-05-07	Ali	Ali prefers handwriting notes to typing: typing slips into autopilot, copying out the lecture without taking it in, while handwriting is too slow to do without taking it in.	Live Q&A + Hangout - Bank Holiday vibes - Ali Abdaal, Cambridge medical student 00:09:19
2018-05-02	Ali	Ali says his advice that making notes is a waste of time is for people who make notes and are unhappy with their results: if notes get you top grades, carry on; active recall, though, suits everyone.	Exam Study Tips for University & A-Level students - Revision Q&A with Cambridge students 00:20:33
2018-05-02	Ali	When lecture notes are good, Ali makes no notes, only questions from them, which he answers and checks; when they are bad he looks for a review paper, a revision guide or someone's notes to avoid making his own.	Exam Study Tips for University & A-Level students - Revision Q&A with Cambridge students 00:19:08
2018-05-01	Ali	Ali says mind maps can be good for revision as long as you don't look at the book while making them, so that they are active recall; they should hold the main points, not much detail.	First Live Hangout + Rapid-fire Q&A 00:04:07
2018-04-24	Ali	Answering viewers who admire his work ethic, Ali says he is not a productivity machine but likes to work efficiently: he would never spend three hours making notes from a textbook, which looks like productivity but really is not.	Study with Me + Revision tips from friends - Cambridge University medical student VLOG #32 00:06:23
2018-04-24	Ali	Ali builds his active recall spreadsheet in Google Sheets with friends: for each neurology topic the group brainstorms questions an examiner could ask, writes them in column A and works out the answers for column B.	Study with Me + Revision tips from friends - Cambridge University medical student VLOG #32 00:04:28
2018-04-18	Ali	In the past Ali would have read the textbook and made notes, spending eight to ten hours on the same topics and, he thinks, learning less, because notes and textbooks are so inefficient.	Study With Me + 10 Productivity / Revision Tips - Cambridge University medical student VLOG #31 00:07:23
2018-04-18	Ali	Ali writes with different colours, arrows and spacing because they give recall cues: remembering three components written in green on the right of the page can bring back Beck's suicide scale.	Study With Me + 10 Productivity / Revision Tips - Cambridge University medical student VLOG #31 00:01:56
2018-04-14	Paul	tension: Paul sees making notes as part of processing and understanding: if you are struggling with a topic, making notes can really help.	Last Minute Study Tips, Flashcards, Essays & Maths - Exam Revision Q&A with Cambridge students 00:14:07
2018-04-14	Ali	Ali advises avoiding making your own notes completely if you can.	Last Minute Study Tips, Flashcards, Essays & Maths - Exam Revision Q&A with Cambridge students 00:14:07
2018-04-14	Ali	Ali calls listing every topic of the syllabus on one page, as a spider diagram or numbered list, the most useful hour you can spend: with 15 topics and a month left, one a day covers each twice.	Last Minute Study Tips, Flashcards, Essays & Maths - Exam Revision Q&A with Cambridge students 00:09:43
2018-04-14	Paul	To scope a subject, Paul says, face the mountain of work and write down everything you need to do, then split it into manageable chunks, instead of drifting through the month out of fear.	Last Minute Study Tips, Flashcards, Essays & Maths - Exam Revision Q&A with Cambridge students 00:08:24
2018-04-12	Ali	Although Ali has said making notes is a waste of time, he thinks making notes by hand in lectures is a useful strategy because it keeps you awake.	Motivation, Stress & Time Management - Exam Revision Q&A with Cambridge students 00:02:50
2018-04-10	Ali	Ali writes the answers in the spreadsheet's second column in white text so he cannot see them while testing himself; hovering over a cell shows the answer in Excel's formula bar.	Study with me + My revision method - Cambridge University medical student VLOG #30 00:02:55
2018-04-09	Ali	Ali says students should scope their subject: spend as long as it takes, even a whole day, listing every topic of the course, since few students know their course inside out.	How to Study for Exams - Spaced Repetition · Evidence-based revision tips 00:12:39
2018-04-04	Ali	Instead of making notes in lectures or from textbooks, Ali writes questions for himself (the Cornell note-taking method) and answers them when he revises.	How to study for exams - Evidence-based revision tips 00:17:36