How to study effectively from your notes

Studying shouldn’t feel like a scramble to catch up.

With a few key strategies, you can make your notes a reliable resource, helping you understand, remember, and build on what you learn in class.

Here are four powerful habits, with detailed advice and examples, to help you get the most from your notes.

Strategy #1 - Review regularly, not rarely

Why it matters: Regular review sessions make it easier to retain information over the long term. Cramming only gives a temporary boost.

Scheduling quick, consistent review sessions each week helps you stay on top of material, reduces stress, and makes it easier to prepare for exams.

How to build a regular review habit:

• Schedule weekly recaps: Set aside 10-15 minutes every Friday or Sunday to go over the your notes from the week. Short, focused sessions help solidify what you learned and prevent information from piling up.
• Focus on key topics: During these recaps, focus on essential concepts instead of every single detail. This reinforces the most important points and keeps you from getting bogged down.
• Use a “what’s missing?” list: As you review, create a list of any areas that feel incomplete or confusing. Having this list on hand can guide your next study session and help you track your learning progress over time.

Over time, this will help you spot patterns in what’s challenging and help you focus where it counts.

Expert tip: Use the spaced repetition planner to enhance your learning efficiency!

Strategy #2 - Make your notes work for you

Why it matters: Clear, organized, and meaningful notes are more valuable than pages of hurried scribbles.

By taking a few minutes to review and fill in gaps, you ensure your notes make sense when it’s time to study, helping you avoid confusion and reinforcing your understanding.

How to organize and create meaningful notes:

• Follow a consistent structure: Add headings, subheadings, and bullet points to give your notes a logical flow. Consistently using different colors for key areas, e.g. green for definitions, blue for quotes, can also help to make scanning easier. 
• Make it personal: When possible, add examples in your own words, especially for tough concepts. Personal examples make ideas clearer and are easier to recall than generic phrases. 
• Fill the information gaps: If your notes feel thin, revisit the textbook or any extra materials from class to add depth. Be specific - write down examples, steps in a process, or even clarifying definitions to make sure your notes hold all the information you need.

Strategy #3 - Summarize and condense

Why it matters: Effective notes don’t just store information; they highlight what’s most important. Summarizing and condensing your notes can help you distill complex topics down to the essentials, making it easier to study and retain the main ideas.

How to summarize with focus:

• Extract key ideas: After reviewing a section, write down one or two sentences that capture the main idea. This could be the thesis of a lecture or the core point of a topic.
• Highlight and annotate: As you read through your notes, highlight crucial points and add quick annotations in the margins. These help guide you back to the important details without needing to re-read everything.
• Create visual aids: Condensing information doesn’t have to be text-based; diagrams, charts, and mind maps can help you see connections and relationships between concepts.

Strategy #4 - Use active recall methods

Why it matters: Active recall goes beyond passive review by challenging you to remember information without looking at your notes. This method strengthens your memory and highlights areas that need more practice, making your study sessions far more productive.

How to implement active recall:

• Create practice questions: After summarizing a concept, turn it into a question that you can answer later. This helps you engage actively with the material rather than just re-reading it.
• Build short quizzes: Jot down multiple-choice or true/false questions based on your notes. Test yourself weekly to reinforce what you know and target areas where you’re unsure.

Daily, low-stakes quizzing promotes “desirable difficulty,” where cognitive effort strengthens learning. In addition, short quizzes help provide fast feedback so that you can quickly identify your gaps and plan your future study sessions.

• Make flashcards for quick reviews: Write flashcards for definitions, dates, formulas, or key facts. Quiz yourself regularly to strengthen recall, especially on topics you find challenging.

Example: After a psychology lecture, make a flashcard that asks, “What are the three types of memory?” On the back, list “Sensory, short-term, and long-term memory.”

These quick questions create mental connections, allowing you to reinforce what you’ve learned and identify any weak spots.

Key takeaways:

• Consistency over cramming: Weekly reviews are more effective than last-minute cramming, reducing stress and improving exam readiness.
• Structure makes your notes stronger: Organized notes with headings and color coding enhance understanding and simplify review.
• Summarize to simplify: Summarizing complex information into main points and visuals aids efficient studying.
• Active recall strengthens memory: Techniques like quizzes and flashcards, enhance memory retention and pinpoint focus areas.
• Fill in information gaps: Expanding sparse notes with examples or definitions from additional materials ensures you have a comprehensive study resource.

By using these methods to organize, summarize, and test yourself, you’re transforming your notes into a powerful study tool that’s easy to revisit, accurate, and filled with the information you need.

Happy studying!