the one that work for me is: record the explanation while i'm learning, then make the notes later while i'm reviewing the explanation. for me it's distracting to learn and taking note at the same time
For me as well, it's really kinda difficult to take notes while learning alongside. I too follow the recording process, but there's a downfall to this approach as we need to spend twice as much time for each item.
I haven't even gotten to the alternative and I am blown away by this. In school, I almost never took notes. I just listened, asked and answered questions, and tried to pay attention to the material the best I could. It puzzled me that people spent so much time writing notes. It seemed like a waste to me. Now I have much larger information management challenges and found this video. Excited to see what his solution is!
@@dolanfragrance2274it comes mostly from books, and if you want to write a book, you do need to take notes... but, do you want to write a book or just learn what you have been taught?
This hit home. I definitely was stuck in this cycle for a while and wasn’t sure why, but this video really helped give me some structure to how I’ll plan my learning from now on. -My only issue is that sometimes or really most of the time, is that encoding information or inquiry based learning is not possible for people with very time sensitive schedules. For example, my whole junior year of college I was working full time 6:00am-2:30pm mon-friday. With five classes during the week, I was literally showing up to class for attendance and was too tired to be as engaged as I wanted to be. This resulted in me taking notes and becoming a human photo copier. While this was shitty, it’s actually quite common among college students . I managed to save up a little bit and quit my job. I now retain information and am able to encode it into my long-term memory so much better, but I know a lot of others won’t be able to quit like I did.
Wow, that was an enlightening video.. I am 31yo and back to uni and I found major differences and struggles in my ways of learning. Why? Well .. when I was in college I used to be an A+ student and I barely hold a notebook.. and the one I hold was with ugly handwriting and notes I only read before an exam. So how I Aced all of my exams and how I remembered everything was with actually listening to the teacher and reading the books and trying to understand the material. I used to walk around my room and recall verbally what I have learned. I've imagined that I am a teacher and teaching some kids.. I used to find studying easy! (btw the internet wasn't even a thing when I was in college, we used to trust the A students on their tips and the teachers) Now. I am 31yo back in uni to study Physics. My brain is overloaded with all the internet and youtube tips. I found myself constantly downloading new note-taking apps and trying to build some perfect system in order to achieve A. All I was doing was note-taking, I wasn't even reading or listening in class. I was bothered by how I take notes, which system I use, my handwriting, this and that. Then I was rereading my notes which did not make ANY SENSE AT ALL, and I was going back to the books.. reading and realising that my notes are too much.. This video made me remember like a deja vu.. the confidence and skills I had when I was in college, based on actual learning rather than note taking. I am going to proceed with uni following my old techniques. Thank you for reminding me!
yes i went through the same thinking that the new techniques were better wasted my time I am back to textbooks and real knowledge, and real question banks were there is a challenge to your brain with scenarios instead of anki were you only recall information and facts.
I’m 34 jn med school and feel exactly the same way. I’m one of the worst in the class despite hours I’ve spent reading books and watching RU-vid on “the best ways to study”. It’s so overwhelming the amount of info that’s out there about how to study, and also resources to study each topic… and I never had this overload problem the first time I studied when I was younger, I just got on with it in my own way, without being shamed for “using the wrong techniques”
awesome thoughts, Archer. I was talking a few days ago with my boyfriend about how unrealistic SRS is, even to the most hard working students. You miss a day of flashcards because life happens and everything becomes so messy! It's a great tool like everything you mentioned, but should be used wisely and not as a walking stick to postpone the learning - it should be used to maintenance what you truly learned. Your content is high quality and not superficial learning tips. I hope your channel gets bigger everyday, i already can see it!
Not going to lie, I'm relatively new to Notion so I came into this video with a closed mind. I am two minutes in and you have completely disarmed me and allowed me to actively hear your perspective. Touché my dude. Well done video!
Archer this video was amazing. The editing, the research, and so much more! Really found this informative. Also 100% agree from, September till December I was just typing everything my teachers said, but then over the holidays I realized that I was not really remembering as much as I thought I did. Been doing handwritten notes since I went back to school. I'm a lot slower at handwriting so it helps me think about all these ideas differently.
Hey Yoni! Good to see you again :) Thank you so much. Really glad to hear you’ve taken a lot away from it. I’m seeing all your progress on Instagram which is great to see!
One of the best videos i've watched in a long time on youtube. I've intuitively done it right since i needed to learn in my life but learning the actual principals behind it was really enlightening. Thanks for making this.
Dude your channel is a lifesaver. I just finished my last math and cs exams and since ive been following you I really started understanding the material on a deeper level! Thank you!!!
One of the best videos on the internet! There are just so many videos on note taking/apps/tools etc., but none of them talk about how to learn things how does our memory work. There's also not enough guidance on how to make the encoding process better and learn faster. I remember a classmate of mine who never took notes but remembered everything, and I often wondered how she was doing it, stronger encoding skills are what matters 👌
I use Notion for school together with OneNote. I actually just use OneNote for things, that requrie me to use my pen. But I don't take notes of almost everything, I just write down the most important thing and also think about them during the lesson.
The best description for Notion that I have heard is that it is less of a note taking app, and more of a personal and team website/system builder. Its better at setting up your life or managing a team workflow than it is taking notes.
I'm a medical student with a background in psychology, and I love looking up information on learning. I definitely agree that so much of what people talk about revolves around "spaced-repetition" and "active recall." People cite these papers ad nauseum. So many other video creators make content and repeat the exact keywords as the last one. It has gotten to a fanatic level. Just because several "scientific" papers are written on a topic doesn't mean it is the end-all-be-all. There is also bias in publication, and researchers jump on the bandwagon. Suddenly there are tons and tons of articles all singing their praises for these methods as though nothing else could bestow understanding on the lowly human not performing these sacred academic rituals. Then, all the same people making videos promoting a single-size-fits-all study regimen also make videos about using the same handful of apps-- Anki, Notion, RemNote, and a few more. Doctors have been around for a while now. There have been some brilliant doctors long before these apps and even before computers, yet when I mention to my classmates that I read textbooks, they scoff and tell me I'm wasting my time. Strangely enough, I got promoted, and they ended up repeating a semester. So, sure keep telling yourself that doing 1,000 Anki flashcards a day really works. I believe it can be traced back to the falling standards in our education system. Students aren't being guided in ways that actually teach them to think critically and form robust deep understanding from long periods of focus and research. They're unable to have much of a conversation on important topics or debate theory. Before, university graduates were required to have a professional, working understanding of at least two foreign languages, one ancient (e.g., Latin or Greek) and one modern (e.g., Hebrew or French). They read great works from ancient philosophers to the Gospels. They wrote essays that were longer than today's ubiquitous 2-page, double-spaced, Time New Roman, 12-point font. Students of old could point to the United States on a map. Our standards have fallen, and with them, our ability to understand and think about complex issues. Why think about it when you can outsource your cognitive faculties to Google? This leads us to another hot topic people keep bringing up "building your second brain." Use Notion to build your second brain; you hardly use the one you've got, so why not make a dumping ground for all these useless notes and other junk you can say you'll look at later and never do. Nowadays, a lot goes into trying to absorb everything with a snap of your fingers for an upcoming exam. This leads students to seek methods that get them quick results but don't uphold merit. They quickly forget the material after the test and go to the next class to repeat the process.
Your entire polemic stinks of “but muh old ways were better”. Very dogmatically opposed to new ideas, technology, and how we can integrate and synthesize them with old ways.
Great video. I've never used Notion for notes ever, I'm sort of surprised that so many people used it to take notes, I personally just used it as a repository of tasks I needed to do.
Love this Archer! I was hesitant about following your "notion-centered study system" for medschool. But this video really clarified my concerns. Is it possible for you to do a vid on what you do during med lectures (given you prime beforehand, and type up recall questions on notion afterwards?) ?
WOWOW thank you sosososomuch! My yt notifications for you channel is defs on now! It would be great for you to explore how you prime (more specific tangible examples than the previous vids), engage during lecture and post-lecture? Alternatively if you watch recorded lectures, what do you do pre/during/post? ^^ pre much like a study with me😂
That's why it's probably best to understand the content (from textbook and maybe other sources) in advance and then make notes on what we understand in a particular topic and perhaps summarise them at the same time (only focusing on the necessary bits) , before each lecture. And during each lecture, you would be listening more then typing since when you hear something crucial that you know is in your notes, you can just simply add on to it. This seems to be the ideal way. I just need to actually do it and I feel like these note-taking apps might help with that or at least make the note-taking process faster so you can focus on the understanding part. You can have the information but what's the point if you don't understand it. We need tp turn that information into knowledge by truly understanding it.
such an amazing and needed video! Congrats! So important and useful the difference between notes for reference and for learning that was smt i was really struggling with, thanks!!!
Not a student anymore, but back then mind maps where the new shiny thing I learned about, but digital notetaking wasn't that advanced. During lectures I took linear notes on paper - and yes - pretty much just forgot everything immediatelly. The actual learning was more done by doing the exercises we had to do along and trying to explain what we already understood to fellow students who were struggling with an exercize. I still think these elements are the most crucial things: Using the knowledge in little exercize and learning by teaching / explaining. Today my note taking (in Obsidian, not Notion, but that doesn't really matter that much) is less about learning - it is mostly about referencing stuff. Like my D&D sessions: I might need info on persons we already met and locations we already were at on a future session, but it is not that important that I actually need to get it into my brain for active use on a daily basis or a test. There are other parts of my personal life that are of similar nature. One other thing I use note taking for is for capturing random ideas that pop up thoughout the day (jounraling) in order to act on them later. The closest thing might be literature / source notes where I just write down thoughts on stuff I am consuming in order to extract some knowledge out of it by linking it to other ideas presented in different notes and personal experience.
Hi archer, great vid btw, i can see the amount of editing and scripting you pit into it. But I want to see you'r work in real time. I hoped on some livestreams but couldn't stay all the way. Can you have the livestreams unlisted instead of private and then put all the livestreams into another playlist. So that there not recommended and in ur front page but still acesible?
I'm in my second year studying astrophysics and oh man, the amount of notes I took because it felt like I was learning something by just organising information neatly on a page... needless to say I felt helpless in almost every exam I took. I only scraped a pass last semester so I'm hoping I can make some changes by improving my encoding and switching up my note taking methods. I'm really liking the sound of mind maps and visualising relations so I might give that a go!
Love it! Before, I just happen to watch Dr. Justin Sung's videos which I think will help me. And in the last few days I get to watch a video of yours and I think it's a good choice to watch it because I think you're speaking very well along with those fortified facts. I hope your channel grows. you deserve it!
I mostly agree with you. Too much of note taking can be disastrous for your academics. But what's the alternative, not taking notes? or is this answer too simple? I am more confused than ever TBH.
One of your best videos, gonna share this one with my students. I will also add that you can utilize backlinking in your notes with very similar effect.
Lucky me found this video, I realized that I spend a lot of time of taking note, and learn nothing. Your video answers all the questions in my mind, Thanks!!
You make some interesting points about the learning process, but it seems to me that you undervalue note taking for reference and review purposes. When you have recorded lectures or transcripts at your disposal, then I agree you should spend as much time as you can in the state of desired difficulty that you mentioned so that long-term memory is engaged. But there are instances where this is not ideal, such as when you're watching a live lecture. In these situations, you simply don't have time to waste encoding. By the time you've encoded one thing, the lecture will likely have moved on, perhaps several topics past the one you've just finished converting to long-term memory. In these cases, a simple transcription Ior summary is much more useful than you give it credit for. So, while I agree that Notion isn't ideal as a one-stop shop for note-taking and studying purposes, I do still find it to be a vital part of my personal learning process.
This was really interesting to watch because just yesterday I came across your channel and watched your video about using notion for active recall. I'm also a big fan of Dr Justin Sung's channel and his video on encoding which you referenced so I was a bit torn yesterday when I came across your video because you made active recall on notion seem so appealing and it seemed to work so well for you (seeing as how you're such a successful student). Watching your video today was really relieving because I'm no longer torn lol. Your video really solidified for me that I need to focus more on encoding effectively and increasing my cognitive load rather than wasting too much time on note taking and active recall. Thank you for this.
Hey, Archer. I'd like to inquire about the further techniques that you would like to suggest as more (efficient), and what implications they have on various forms of subjects, such as: -English -Mathematics -Chemistry,Bio As these three subjects are radically different in terms of the forms of which they are organised, would you therefore create an entirely different study technique for each one? I believe that people generally don't want to risk losing marks by undertaking a procedure of notetaking that isn't conventional, or regularly used by them, so often they will require a lot of convincing. The video didn't really cover the topics of what I wanted to know, ranging from specific applications that I could use in order to achieve this alternative, I would 100% agree with your outlook on encoding, but I can't see from the procedure of your video an immediate alternative. I'm looking to revolutionise my study structure, I'm currently in Year 10, and am digesting constant sources of pure practice in tasks such as English and Mathematics, with a data-dump form of note-taking in Chemistry and Biology. Would you suggest a different technique? If so, can you include a response with succinct ways in which it can be achieved, including schedule changes, and subject prioritisation. I'm a Victorian student, planning to undertake the subjects of Spec, Methods, Chem, Bio and English, and I'm currently doing an accelerated studies program, through a 1/2 Mathematical Methods class in Year 10. If possible, could you form a long response of your suggestions, or at the very least some small applicational help. I would like a direct response, and a procedure. Thank you, great video. Sebastian Ioannidis
I agree. I tried to use notion to study for a test, I've ADHD and I have to say that Notion just didn't work for me. It was great for structuring what I had to study but no so much for the actual note taking process. I hate Notion for note taking, I'm used to making messy notes for important info during classes and then sumarizing them and making them pretty while studying. I'm now looking for an actual note taking app to do some digital hand written notes and maybe import those as images to paste them into the Notion pages I created, mostly because I already wasted time structuring everything there, It's just empty.
*quivers in boots* “I…like shiny toys…” 🥺 Jokes aside and in all fairness though this video is really smart. It reminds me of some friends of mine (one who is now an anaesthetist) who never took notes in lectures and did well anyway. I guess I didn’t have the terminology at the time, but using what you’ve said, you could definitely call it extra strong encoding. It goes back to the basics in high school when you’re told to “summarise things in your own words”. It’s not a function of regurgitation but of thinking. now, I must depart 💨 *retreats back to comfortable Notion-friendly side of RU-vid*
The Brain cannot multi-task. The person is either taking notes or learning. Learning takes a lot of brain power. When trying to simultaneously do both, the brain will take the option that uses less energy.
Note taking apps even good ones when they become popular add features and become bloated and I'm doing more configuring than note taking. It's like the original iPad (simple and clean) compared to what it is now. I just use a note book bullet journal system.
mindmaps are great and effective, sure, but the reason why people use notion or text-based note-taking is because it's neater. there's nothing more painful that spending hours on a mindmap and it looking super messy with arrows all over the place, and expecting to come back and revise from it. any tips on making a 'neater' mindmap? sometimes i just write linear notes first and then transfer it to a mindmap. but thats even more time wasted!
What I do is active recall with the questions I type on notion in class. I annotate the slides on my iPad to add extra info the teacher says and don’t copy the notes word for word. Then, when I’m revising the subject for the first time, I got to those questions and try to answer them (usually right after class) and test myself to see if I remember. Anything I didn’t, I check the slides or look it up. If there are any concepts that are harder, I will take extra time to understand them before memorizing them. Finally, i will wait a couple of days and use the mind maps to test myself on all the information. So instead of blurting out an entire paragraph I’ll make a mind map instead and connect everything to eachother!
I know when I’m zoned out when I take notes, and when I’m actively focused and trying to understand what the professor is saying while taking notes to record my understanding. I always try to do the latter, because I know too that being a photocopier and not understanding what is being talked about is as good as not taking notes at all.
What if I use Notion to store my synthesised information ( that I gather from lecture notes, textbook etc. ) in an organised way, and then do mind mapping with layers for pre-study and during class as then I can go to my information Vault in Notion when I need to check my understanding or refer to when I'm confused?
I think you are conflating method and tool here. 100% agree with what you said about being a recorder. But surely that is poor notetaking technique. I often make handwritten notes, (on my Surface Pro)embed them in my relevant notion page review them and write a summary in the summary section of the notes database. It's the same as when I did my undergrad 30 years ago on paper.
Should I write in notebooks or use apps like this I see everyone around me working on notion or ipads and it feels weird to write also notebooks exhaust fast when doing maths?
I've watch a lot of Justin sung video and yours and it definitly changed my way of thinking about the learning process so for that thank you ! But i don't know I still feel like i'm not doing mindmaps correctly or inquiry based learning too and it's frustrating. I don't know if it's just something that is hard or maybe i'm doing it all wrong but I will keep trying. I do have a question though when i'm in class i write down question like "how does that influence this thing" "how does that relate to that" etc... Do you think I should just try to do it in my head, would that be better ? Bref great video !
Yeah, keep it in your head if possible. Ideally you will have pre-studied and answered these questions using Google prior to the lesson so you can focus on consolidation/digging even deeper into the topic. Personally, the idea of trying to learn a topic in class for the first time is stupid, as there is just too much cognitive load and distraction, and this leads to poor note-taking habits (such as writing down questions, as you've described) and the ones outlined in the video. The school system is largely to blame though - overwhelming you with resources/terrible PPTs. Sorry for the rant lol but I hope you get the point.
@@TBC1599 yeah i tried to pre-study but i just have so much content to learn that i often have some catch up to do and i end up skipping the pre-study step. I just have a lot to do since when i was in middle school and high school I never really needed to study so now that i'm in college i had to learn how to study and at the same time study my subjects and it's really hard because there are just a lot of content and it's always new things so i often feel overwhelmed (?) (I don't really know if that's the good word to use but yeah) . Anyways i agree the school system isn't good even tho i guess it's not the same in the USA and France but yeah. Bref thanks a lot for your advice hehe.
@Anonymous ye I think archer even talked about it in one of his videos that he uses notion for his inquiry based learning, so like at the start he would jot it down but after a month or 2 of doing it he said he’s able to do all the inquiry based learning in his head.
I think having a general idea in advanced and when in lecture to write the key ideas that the lecturer is telling after that if i have some gaps just search for it and then make a good summary is good . For that İ don't think that notion is that bad , i can write down the relations between different things the linear way. Thanks for the great video
Hey Archer, I do agree with not relying on linear-structured notes for Physics but would using active recall for questions I make based on class powerpoints or a mind-map note system work better? Note: Answering Q’s from powerpoints are much quicker to do and require less time so I can focus on H/W and trial q’s but what is your take?
But of course different people learn differently, so different people need different tools in order to learn. That's a pretty basic concept of Learning Theory.
Yes however the basics of learning information more effectively isn't something taught to us. Also which learning theory are you referring to, because 'everyone learns differently' is something I've only ever seen in conversation, not real research. People often start customising their learning far too early in the process. A good analogy to look at is walking. It wouldn't really may make sense to say "everyone moves from A to B differently", meaning some people crawl, or walk on their hands etc. That isn't the case because the 'easiest' way for most of us to move from A to B is walking, however, we all have different gaits. In the case of learning, depending on 'everyone learns differently' is a very good way to go against plenty of the research that provide clear recommendations to learning before customising. Customising too early when the foundational skills are not honed in on leads to a prematurely ineffective learning system. Here is an article which gives a good intro into the educational myth of "learning styles" www.juicyenglish.com/blog/exposing-the-myth-of-learning-styles
@@ArcherNewton This is article has some explanations and links that you might find interesting. Also, check with any university Education program near you.
I feel so sad over last few months for being a human photocopier for my 5-6 years of academic life... I feel regret on how much I've missed out and how much I could have done for my family life, personal development apart from studying hard just to ace exams and forget it
what are your thoughts of using obsidian as a note taking tool? it has always seem wrong to me and also so time consuming, the process of taking notes in a computer.
I love the idea of Notion. I tried it and it failed. For some reason a reinstall fixed my issues. I want to use it but I cannot. To me, it is a useless app because I cannot use it offline. This is a deal breaker. If an app is designed for productivity, it damm well better be available for off line use. Period!
I agree with this. I am a musician and switched to MIRO and use that to draw mind maps and correlations. It's really a 3D thing and Notion just feels 2 Dimensional/Linear way of learning.
And so now I'm stuck wondering how to take notes and study instead. One thing that has been certain for me is that everything I've studied and attempted to learn has mostly just been forgotten and lost in the void. I am now set to take the most challenging and critical-to-understand courses in my studies at University, and don't have the necessary study skills and methods to retain the information I'm studying. I'm extremely stressed because of it and now afraid of absolute failure.
Have you ever wondered if your thought-process comes from modern societal expectations to be productive, systematic and knowledgable in order to make money… can life become so systemised theres no room to explore your creativity and novel ideas? How do you balance the intellectual side and the creative side, are they incorporated at the same time, what if we seperated them completely?
I love using the flowmodoro technique when I study but when I do hard work thats new or a bit too difficult, my motivation is decreased massively. Do you know how to handle this better?
It feels like a personal attack whenever he says "human photocopier". That's a great phrase, tbh. Really represents me lol. Anyway, you opened up my eyes. Notion isn't the optimal for academic note-taking. But it's useful to note-take some meeting notes, storing your projects, and more. Well, I think it's naturally not suitable for academic usage. I love the part that question whether we actually note-take to learn of for future reference. Possibly, I only used the latter, which is ineffective in the long term. *send cry face* And well, thank you!
I can't pay attention and listen activ in class even when I write by hand on paper, I have in plan to use notion to make notes and print them, than add edits with the pen and after I study actively the subject, there I will try to recall all I retained and also write down key phrases
Hey Archer, can I ask about what you do during lectures? I know you said you thought about how the content is important and how it relates to other aspects of the lecture, but do you write these thoughts down? And then after the lecture, is that when you use mind mapping and flowcharts to make notes?
Hi Leck! So I don’t actually attend lectures but if I were to, I recommend writing down notes in a relational way, meaning using things like flowcharts and mindmaps on the go are a good start 🙂
This was such a good video. Concept clarity before taking any form of notes is underrated due to these short note taking applications. Where the information came from ? How is it relevant to the course ? What are the backlinks to the information ? Why is the information necessary are somethings that short questions won't cover. What they will be learning are a bunch of useless words that despite active recall for the examination won't have active recollection when seen in the real world. What's the use of studying this way. As a comment below said there were great doctors before this but does doing this makes anyone great ? Does it make someone a researcher or as you said a team collaborator in the real world and will you be able to bring up that information in say a meeting where it is relevant ?
Thank you for the video, totally agree. I'm studying Bioengineering and in a bad need for a note taker that between my MacBook air, iPad pro and windows, so I can open it with all systems and take notes, keep my online version textbooks. Any advice?
Our brain is working with a way called association, every thing in our mind is connected with other things related to that thing, and each of these other things is also related to other things that are related to each of those other things. Our mind is basically a huge Mindmap. That's why it's called "Mindmap", because it's represents how human brain/ mind works 😂
when it comes to taking down notes Quickly. Evernote I thinks is the best out there. why? evernote has audio and camera to quickly take audio notes and photo notes. evernote can also scan text on a photo you uploaded, in can search through the receipt or bills you attach in it or a business card. it can search inside PDF too. When it comes to organizing notes. Notion is Perfect for that. are you planning on working out? then organize all the workout and stretching via different muscle using tags and category by pull or push type of workout, another category for dumbbell , machine and resistance band or education purpose such as 3D anatomy. articles and media. all in one database and sort it when you needed to focus on a certain muscle you can even track you progress using notion too.
Hey Archer, Been following your videos for a while now and watched your previous video on taking down notes on Notion in the form of active recall questions. Would you say this is also a passive way of learning?
I really don't like this video. First of all, half of this video wasn't even about Notion, but rather about people who rely on copying their professor verbatim and relying on that for studying. I agree that this is ineffective, but it really doesn't matter if you use paper or Notion or Google Docs for that. Also, can we stop with the "notetaking for reference is a waste of time as you haven't learned anything yet" approach? Not every teacher even has lecture slides and not every class has a textbook. If I don't take notes in my psychology class there's no way I can learn it, because I simply cannot learn information I don't have. Also, saying you could just record the lecture or use someone else's notes? Recording will get you dismissed from university if anyone finds out and if you want someone else's notes, someone else has to take notes right? Second of all, there's literally nothing wrong with linear notes, you just gotta have to find a system that works for you. Yes, if I want to remember my cryptography class, I do think in my mostly linear pattern of note taking. Mindmaps and that stuff have never worked for me because they are way too cluttered and unorganized for my thought pattern. However, that doesn't mean that I just copy everything verbatim like a Wikipedia article. And this is why I don't like this video. Because I agree with most of what you are saying, just not the way you presented it. Notion can be a note-taking app because you can take notes with it. Whether or not these are effective for studying or not has nothing to do with Notion, which is why I feel the title of the video doesn't fit at all. Yes, copying every single word verbatim and then trying to sift through all that text and memorize it, will take more effort and time than if you change your methods. Yes, you might think you know and understand more than you actually do when in reality, you don't even know what you wrote down. Yes, active recall and spaced repetition are way more effective when you get the encoding process right. But yes, you can still use Notion to take notes without it being ineffective. No, you don't have to understand everything you write down immediately, because that just isn't always possible. No, you don't have to create mindmaps if you don't like them. Note-taking and studying should not be too easy, but you also shouldn't hate every second of it. How would that look in reality? If my chemistry teacher is copying a diagram from our textbook, I'll write down the page number and make some notes on what he says about this specific reaction, because even though the reaction is in the textbook, there might not be a good explanation or he prefers a different one. I mostly listen to what he's saying though and write down every question that pops up in my mind. After class, I look through the notes I made, which are usually quite short. Then I start making my own notes to help me understand and organize the information. I use the box method which means that every subtopic becomes it's own box with bullet points and diagrams. Currently, I hand-write my notes on my iPad, but you can use this method on Notion if you want to. I color code definitions, formulas and other important information and arrange my boxes in a way that makes the most sense for me. It's a linear type of note-taking, but the structure helps me to find a step-by-step understanding of the topic. If I'm done with taking my notes, I just screenshot everything and make Anki cards with it. Why do I do this? In class, I have the time to listen to my teacher because I'm not constantly preoccupied with writing. I also have to engage with the information in order to form questions about what I don't understand. This is also the fundamental structure of my active recall, because most of the questions I ask in class, become flashcards later. After class, I have to further engage with the material in order to understand and structure the topic in note form. While it might take some time to do that, afterwards, I have a much better understanding of the topic AND I have notes I can use to create my flashcards and as a reference. It also helps to condense the information as I have summarized an entire semester of cryptography on one sheet of paper. Most of my content heavier courses fit on 1-2 pages so even if I have to look at the bigger picture, I just have to look at 1-2 pages.
Awesome video! One question tho. I understand this way of learning on subjects like Science and all, but how can I apply the same to language learning? Language learning is about vocab, grammar and all, I'm using the SRS but it is not very effective to me.
Thank you! You’re right, language is a little different. I recommend looking at things like comprehensible input hypothesis. Things like chunking, dual coding, focusing on relationships to organise the information is still very applicable though :)
Thank you for this amazing and beautifully presented content. I've gathered quite a few insights from this. Do you still use Notion though? For what purposes?
Thank you Dmitry!! Appreciate it :) Yea I still use Notion, mostly for project management and for notes for reference sometimes. I mostly use Roam Research for notes of reference now.
Hello Archer I just started year 11 and I know taking linear notes is ineffective but I can’t use use iPad in class. How do I go about effective note taking?
Archer, should we use Concept map or Mind Map, I find it difficult to find the right preposition in Concept map, can you suggest a way to make it smoother.
Hey so jjst to summarise this video, I agree that writing down notes word to word is of course not active and passive , and you’ll also not be able to understand what is important But are you suggesting that the method we should opt for instead of traditional note taking is mindmaps, and flow diagrams? What are your thoughts on converting notes into questions for active recall later? Thanks and good edits btw
The video is a good one, but it doesn't address the deeper issue. The reason everyone dumps whatever the teacher says in Uni is because the method of teaching has become lazy and too efficient for teachers Teachers don't give time to digest the information in class anymore, like they did when building ideas on a chalkboard. Instead, they are parroting a set of 4 or 5 bullet points from a premade PowerPoint, and the pace is so quick that a student has no choice but to record everything for digestion later on. In summary, professor teachings become less and less organic is leaving students with 80 slides of data that they simply don't have enough time to process till later.
So interesting, the encoding idea. I've never invested much in note-taking in my entire life (I thought that I should finally learn), but I always learned and loved learning. I simply listen and played a movie of the lesson (encoding perhaps) with the teacher as narrator. Everything was fairly easy except for language classes and chemistry (which probably didn't translate as well into mental movies). The math worked because I had to actually do the thinking, the mental exercise. All that being said, I came across this Chinese Proverb: "The faintest ink is more powerful than the strongest memory." Encoding and noting important points are key. It all makes sense. Good stuff...