A lecture is like a sports event. You need to warm up your muscles - in this case your brain - before you begin listening to the lecture.  Otherwise, you will go in cold, and the lecture will overwhelm your brain.  You may understand some of it, but basically, you'll be trying to play "catch-up" during the whole class period.  You'll be paging through your book, looking at the board, looking at the instructor, trying to take notes, and trying to listen and understand the meaning of the instructor's words.

We've all done it, and we all know it doesn't work.  Our short-term memory quickly becomes overwhelmed and can't process information to the working memory, much less our long-term memory.  Barriers get built, and soon we become panicked or bored.  At that point, the information is pretty much lost to long-term memory.

A better way to prepare yourself to listen to a lecture is to preview your textbook first.  Please see our web pages on text book marking and reading.

• Preview the lecture by first reading/scanning your textbook.  Whether the instructor talks about the text or related topics not in the text, you will better understand his presentation by reading the text.  Not only that, your brain will feel confident that it is in prime condition to learn.

• Listen effectively, which is a high-level skill.  Focus. It will require practice. 

• Think about what the instructor is saying.  Effective listening is an active mental process. You must reason, weigh, and analyze what is being said.  
  
  You must process the information.  Concentrate. 
  
  Look at the instructor.  If your eyes stray, so do your thoughts.  (However, do take notes.  Doing so will keep your mind focused and reinforce the material in your memory.  Your lecturer will be glad to see you take notes.)  
  
  Try to find the general plan, or theme, of the lecture.  Listen for ideas, implications, and significance - not just words and facts.  Ask yourself, "What does all this mean?  What is the implication of what he's saying.  How does it fit together with what I've already learned?"  Listen for any special emphasis.  If you don't know the answers to these questions, ask.  Instructors need to know their students are listening, plus they need to know when someone doesn't understand something.  Chances are that if you don't understand something, a lot of the other students don't either. 

• Take good notes, which will help you concentrate and will reinforce the information in your memory.  Notes also allow review of material.  Please see our section on note-taking.
  
  Be brief.  Don't include unnecessary words, such as "a", "an", or "the".  Don't try to write down everything.  Condense.  
  
  Make notes of ideas presented, as well as facts.  Don't sit and wait for earth shattering pronouncements.  Take as many notes as you can.  
  
  Leave space for connected ideas that come up during the lecture.  You will also use the space for notes when you are reviewing later.

In addition to leaving space for later notes, leave space so that your brain doesn't get overwhelmed.  This part of note taking is quite important.  It won't do any good to take notes if your brain is so overwhelmed it doesn't even want to look at the notes.  If you cram everything together, that scenario is exactly what will happen.  You may try to look at your notes and study them, but your brain won't comprehend them.

• Review the lecture after class.  See if your note-taking process is good.  Can you find the main points?  If you  lost your way, now is the time to put the notes in the proper order.  Organize your notes (indent, underline, highlight, etc.)

• Summarize the lecture after class.  Go back and try to summarize the main ideas.  Doing so will make you think about the material and will help you understand it.