To take notes and to summarize

In itself taking notes is not a true source of learning, but the rearrangement and the re-reading are surely an important study phase.

In many cases lessons notes are fundamental. In fact it often happens that the teachers intend exam texts as the organization material of the topic and centre instead oral tests on particular themes faced during classes. In this case notes of every kind are very valuable, also those written by others .

For the text notes, that are summaries, if you have time it's always better doing them on your own. Revising, selecting and handling the concepts in more synthetic or extremely detailed paths helps the memory to fix better the contents.
In the points where you're not sure you understood, it's better to leave a hole (put in evidence) and not to write anything. Some good notes are built so that you can trust them, otherwise their function gets lost.

Writing well is difficult, but to summarize is still more. Read a paragraph at a time and estimate if it has some important trough joints or not. Mark in an outline the main concepts, deepening them when particularly difficult.
The purpose of the summary is

· Being an agile guide to retrace quickly the text.
· To get the things to be known all together, with the comments of the teacher, the particularities and the solution of the exercises.

The added value of a notebook consists in the reorganization of the material, that is structured in personal and linked with your prior knowledge.
Pay attention not

- to copy the text how it is. Copying is a waste of time and doesn't bring so far, it gives the feeling to have studied a lot while at the most it allows to fix some specific data. It is worth doing it only for words or formulas.

- to trivialize the content selecting only what it's already known. Even in this case this work becomes harmful, moreover ineffectual, because information get lost along the route.

- to use not a proper strategy. Whether you prepare for precise and specific questions, it can be better a continuous mnemonic reading. If instead a free exposition is required, this is the proper technique.