Growing up, we’ve always been told by our teachers, parents, and peers about how important it is to take notes. I mean, it makes sense right? When you think of a “perfect student,” you imagine someone who punctually arrives to class without exception, attentively listens to the teacher without skipping a beat, and writes the most pristine, well-organized notes the world has ever seen.

However, if you’re not obtaining the scores you want on your exams, I highly doubt it’s because of your notes. Notes aren’t the “golden secret” for good grades as we are led to believe. In fact, I personally believe that note-taking is usually a complete waste of time. But before I tell you why note-taking is bad, let me introduce to you what I believe IS the golden secret to academic success: active recall.

Active Recall: “It can’t be that good right?”

Active recall is essentially a fancy term for testing yourself on the topics you’re trying to learn. This can take place in the form of practice questions, flashcards, and summarizing what you’ve studied.

According to the book “Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning,” most students don’t score as highly as they want to because they’re merely not testing themselves enough.

We like to commonly believe that when we’re studying, we’re putting information into our brains. However, the evidence shows that learning actually takes place when we take information out of our brains when we need it. In other words, we have a lot of information stored in our minds, and active recall is simply retrieving that information. Most importantly…

The harder it is to retrieve that information, the stronger the biological neural connection becomes.

Let me repeat that: the harder it is to retrieve information, the stronger your neural connection becomes. This is the core idea behind active recall.

By challenging ourselves through active recall, we enhance our ability to memorize and understand concepts. For example, you can read all you want about playing the violin, but without actually picking one up and practicing, you’ll never be a musician. Furthermore, a study was done in 2013 that compiled thousands of research papers regarding how various learning techniques influenced academic performance. This study concluded that:

“On the basis of the evidence… we rate practice testing as having high utility. Testing effects have been demonstrated across an impressive range of practice-test formats, kinds of material, learner ages, outcome measures, and retention intervals. Thus, practice testing has broad applicability.”

To put in simple terms, active recall is the most fundamental aspect of learning.

The Downfall of Note-Taking

As mentioned previously, the more difficult your brain has to work, the better you remember. With that being said, note-taking is a relatively passive way of studying. The same study from above found out that people who only summarize the information don’t perform as well as people who test themselves on the content. Even Ali Abdaal, the world’s most-followed productivity expert, states that:

“The only reason, realistically, [why] I actually take notes in class is that it helps keep me awake.”

Furthermore, it’s easy to fall into the trap of mindlessly writing down whatever is on the PowerPoint, which doesn’t challenge your brain.

So what’s the alternative?

At the start of this last semester, I would walk into my Biology class with a paper and pencil, ready to take notes and appear like an academic weapon. However, when it came down to actually studying for the exam, I discovered that I never actually looked at my notes at all. After all, why would I go back to look at my boring, ugly notes when I can look at the same information on my teacher’s colorful PowerPoint that has beautiful pictures and diagrams?

Rather than passively rereading my notes, I instead put the information in Anki, an extremely powerful flashcard software (the best part is that it’s free!). During class, I simply copied and pasted the lecture slides into fill-in-the-blank, Basic (and reversed), and Image Occlusion flashcards.

A short tutorial on the different types of flashcards

Ironically, I actually looked like the opposite of an academic weapon. Whenever I wasn’t making flashcards, I was just sitting there, listening to the professor talk while trying to UNDERSTAND the content instead of memorizing it.

With this method, I ended each lecture with a set of flashcards that I can now use to perform active recall. It was super efficient, had all the information I needed, and very convenient since I could study my flashcards wherever and whenever I wanted to.

By the end of the semester, I studied over 3000 flashcards and ended the class with a near perfect score.

Was it fun? Not really.

But was it doable?

Yes.

After learning about how effective this learning system was, I would see my classmates in front of me typing their notes on a Google Doc and think, “What’s the point?”

However, there are times when I do write notes. For example, in skill-based classes that require more practice instead of memorization, like math classes or organic chemistry, flashcards are not an optimal way of studying. In those cases, I write notes to stay focused in class and gain a foundation for the studying I will do after class. I rarely look back at my notes, but it’s still a viable strategy to enhance your understanding.

In cases where writing notes is an absolute must, then make sure to handwrite them instead of typing them. A study done by Washington State University in St. Louis discovered that handwriting students had a better grasp of the content than those who used a laptop. This is because handwriting makes us think more intensely than typing, which once again goes back to the key idea that the more challenging something is to our mind, the better we eventually remember it.

That's all I got for now!

A lot of information in this blog can be found in Ali Abdaal’s “Feel Good Productivity,” so if you liked this content, feel free to purchase a copy of his book below: https://amzn.to/4auUdea.

Works Cited:

Dunlosky, J., Rawson, K. A., Marsh, E. J., Nathan, M. J., & Willingham, D. T. (2013). Improving Students’ Learning With Effective Learning Techniques: Promising Directions From Cognitive and Educational Psychology. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 14(1), 4–58. https://doi.org/10.1177/1529100612453266