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8 W Lecture Notes
When reviewing your lecture notes, make sure youre not simply
reading them and reviewing the information. Use your brain while
studying, not just your eyes. Each time you use your notes you should
end with EVIDENCE that you have engaged with the information.

1 Condense

Select the most important points from your pages and pages of notes.
Try to rewrite the entire lecture series on a single sheet of paper. Careful, it can get
crowded, but thats not a bad thing.

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4 Summarize

With each day of lecture notes, re-write them into a prose summary
on a separate sheet of paper. Focus on the more important topics and
mention examples briefly. Aim for about a half page for each lecture.

http://guts.wisc.edu/
5 Illustrate
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After you have looked over notes for one
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lecture, fill a new page with the ideas,
words, pictures, shapes -- whatever
comes out of the pen. If you find your
notes too structured, engage with the
444
8 material in this much looser way.

7 Keyword

As you review (along with other strategies) large sections of your notes, place a few keywords that relate
to the material in the margins. When you go over the notes a second time, focus on relating, combining,
contrasting, and ordering the keywords. This will help organize the main topics discussed in the course.

8 Invert

Work backwards by focusing on the examples in your

notes. Copy them onto a separate sheet of paper (or
flashcards) and study them until you know the details
well. Once you do, explain what they are examples of
and how they differ from other examples. Make sure
to work all the way to the top and connect the concrete
examples to the abstract concepts of the course.