Are outlines/rewriting notes a waste of time?

[Road2Success]

Just wanted to see everyone's general consensus on this. I have been trying to implement this and it seems to time consuming. How do you guys feel about it?

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[TheMightySmiter]

Rewriting my lecture notes was how I got two As in organic chemistry. I think it's one of the best ways to study! Honestly it's the only way I study.

 

[ppfizenm]

Just wanted to see everyone's general consensus on this. I have been trying to implement this and it seems to time consuming. How do you guys feel about it?

it's a good way to study.

 

[torshi]

I rewrite my notes all the time - for specific courses. Everyone is different. I'm not the type of person where I can memorize everything by reading just the powerpoint notes only, instead I memorize and rewrite as much as i can by memory. Doesn't take too much time in my opinion.

 

[hiyaman]

The only time I ever re-wrote notes was for biochem and that was more drawing out pathways. I would imagine it would be a nice way to memorize stuff, but it would take a long time.

 

[bigloley]

Make sure you rewrite the notes in your own words, don't copy word for word. By rewriting in your own words you force your brain to actively absorb the material as opposed to just a passive rewriting of the notes.

 

[orthomyxo]

I don't do it. If it works for you, fine; but the sooner you can learn to study a different way, the sooner you can stop wasting a ton of time.

 

[mynameishope]

It's a waste of time (for me).

 

[unhappytnt]

For me it's the only to way to study

 

[tiedyeddog]

I actually make extensive outlines for medical school. It's hella time consuming. Could I find a more efficient way? Probably. Does it work extremely well for me? Oh yeah. Do whatever works.

 

[kpcrew]

it helps me organize and see which subjects i need to work on

 

[mglavin]

While this may work in college you will eventually have to learn how to learn without rewriting all your notes. The volume of material in medical school will be to great for this method to be successful.

 

[At0mic]

Outlines don't work for me. Rewriting notes can work depending on how you go about it...if you're just rewriting everything the prof said, that's not going to do anything. If you interpret as you go, you can get something out of it.
Even with that potential benefit, I still see little reason to do it as it's so time-consuming.

 

[1TB4RKSB4CK]

Everyone learns different. Try it out and see if it works for ya.

 

[DAPI]

I normally rewrite my lecture notes, but I do it in a way where I use my lecture notes as a guide to going through the book to write out just things I do not know and need to learn. That way it is a lot quicker than actually rewriting everything, but at the same time you are actively processing information as you read parts of the book to write things out in more detain than you may have in class. I never just blindly copy my lecture notes as to me, that would be a huge waste of time.

 

[scarshapedstar]

Outline/condense, of course, mostly because I'm not a very good note taker in terms of handwriting or general information density. Maybe it would be different if I had a laptop, because I'm a pretty good typist, but I don't. Rewrite? Hell no.

I like being able to take 20 pages of rambling scrawls and condense it to 4 pages of 12 point Times New Roman. Especially because there are times when I'm blindly writing stuff down and it stops making sense and I leave little question marks in the margins. Later I will finally understand the material, and so I can vastly improve my notes when I revisit them. Sometimes I'll even catch errors. In fact, I dare say if you can read over dozens of pages of notes and not catch anything worth changing, you're probably not really reading them.

 

[Stumpyman]

I've never taken notes in/during a lecture, but depending on the class I usually write down a lot of notes while studying the material (via a textbook, powerpoint, etc.).

Also, I never reread my already written notes. If I don't remember something, I look it up and write it again. This whole process makes things stick in my mind.

 

[Suncrusher]

I take notes with OneNote. The notes can be copy/pasted to make electronic Anki flashcards and then used to study very efficiently. And anything in my notes that I don't already have memorized after a second time watching the lecture gets copy/pasted into an ultra-condensed document that I study twice the night before the test...I guess that is a form of outlining, but it is focused only on what I need to study extra instead of rewriting every single thing in every single lecture. And it is all very efficient. But this can't be repeated enough: try everything and then do what works best for you. Everyone in my class studies very differently but we are all very successful.

 

[scarshapedstar]

I never reread my already written notes. If I don't remember something, I look it up and write it again. This whole process makes things stick in my mind.

Sounds like you could save yourself a lot of time by writing them in disappearing ink.

 

[Stumpyman]

Sounds like you could save yourself a lot of time by writing them in disappearing ink.

But to be honest, I don't take notes way too much in the first place. It's usually only for Bio-related subjects.

 

[borntosucceed]

Rewriting my lecture notes was how I got two As in organic chemistry. I think it's one of the best ways to study! Honestly it's the only way I study.

I'm about to start college and I need help on that.. Did you rewrite your notes AND make study guides or did you use your notes as your study guide?