To take efficient notes, you should listen carefully and critically to what is being said. Taking notes aids comprehension and retention, as personal notes are easier to understand and remember than textbook material. Lecture notes should represent a concise and complete outline of the most important points and ideas, and they clarify ideas not fully understood in the text or elaborate on things that the text mentions only briefly. When lecture notes are combined with notes from textbook material, they become an excellent source of review. To be able to determine during the lecture what is important, it is useful to read or skim the text prior to attending the lecture as we can get the general overview of main ideas, secondary points, and important concepts. Unfamiliar terms should be looked up before the lecture, or explained during the lecture. Using indentations helps us distinguish between major and minor points. It is important to differentiate fact from opinion.

The technique called mapping helps you evaluate material critically in terms of main ideas, secondary points, and details, and to structure this content in an organized and coherent fashion. Irrelevant material should be excluded.