Lectures and Note-Taking

Concentration during the lecture goes into thinking about the implica­tions of the points raised by the lecturer, rather than trying to re­cord them word for word. Most lecturers approve of this approach to note-taking and disapprove of students who attempt to get down every word they say.

Lecture notes, therefore, are guidelines. They may later be ex­panded by notes from other reading or experiments, by ideas raised in tutorials, and by your own reflections on the course content.Overseas students often find particular problems in comprehend­ing what is being said in a lecture and simultaneously taking notes. Here is an Indonesian undergraduate commenting on her initial experience in a foreign university:

When I first started my undergraduate education I was not always able to understand what the lectures were about... In the beginning I had to concentrate very hard on the language, which I had to trans­late into my mother-tongue. However, by doing so I often missed the subject being discussed. Then, in some cases, the subject of the courses required to attend was completely unfamiliar to w be­cause I come from Indonesia .

The combination of the two often led to a situation where at the end of the lecture period my notebook was and the subject matter, but also, and probably more so, due to my inability to take notes from lectures. My past secondary education in Indonesia did not prepare me for such a skill. We used to be given notes by the teacher, which were either handed out or which we diligently copied during the class time.

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