Learning in lectures 

Lectures are very different from lessons at school. For the most part, lectures aren’t interactive – they’ll usually involve the lecturer at the front of the class presenting ideas, concepts and content for about 50 minutes (though sometimes there will be space for questions or discussion – it depends on the lecturer). Some lecturers provide handouts, some don’t – it very much depends on the subject.

Lecturers do not expect you to remember every single word of every single lecture. Again, it depends on the subject – in maths, for example, the lecturer will work through new concepts and problems, so you’ll be more likely to follow them closely, but in English or Music the lecturer will likely be discussing thinking and scholarship related to the subject.

It's perfectly possible to rock up to a lecture, sit in it, then leave – and that’s what some people do. But to get the most out of a lecture, it’s best to do a bit of preparation, consider what you’ll do when you’re in it, and work out a plan for reviewing the content afterwards. 

Before a lecture 

Rather like warming up for exercise, it’s usually a good idea to get your brain into the right mindset for the subject. Wherever possible, take a few minutes to look over the slides for the lecture (in virtually all circumstances they’ll be on Moodle), or have a glance over the handout (if there is one – again, usually on Moodle). You don’t have to read the whole thing and understand it before the lecture – that’s what the lecture is for! Instead, it can be helpful to understand the key points of the lecture. Many lecturers give a summary on the last slide, or the last few slides – you could skip to that to get a better understanding of where the lecture is going to take you. 

In the lecture 

In all subjects, you will need to take notes in lectures. Some people prefer pen and paper, many more use laptops or tablets. If you use pen and paper, make sure it’s in a book or that you have a way of keeping them organised, otherwise you will end the term with a disorganised stack of papers, which is of no help to revision. Laptops or tablets often allow more effective note-taking, because the notes are searchable, but there’s always a temptation to keep WhatsApp or Insta or your email open and just flick to it every so often. Lectures are hard, and you’ll do better if you stay focussed for the full time, so make a habit of quitting other programs and turning off notifications while you’re in a lecture. On a Mac or iPad, use Focus in the Control Center to mute notifications; Windows also has a Focus app (Settings – System – Focus). You might want to turn your phone onto Airplane mode, too, or set a focus on it. 

Lectures with handouts 

If you have a handout, in almost all cases it’s better to write words rather than to highlight things – highlighting is passive, and it’s easy to end up with a page of highlighted notes which make you feel like you’ve done some work when actually it’s only been ‘colouring in’. Many people develop techniques for working with handouts – for example, one way is to use three different types of note:

  • Underline + a few words of comment – to help remember an example from the lecture, to explain something in your own words, or to annotate a graph.
  • Two lines in the margin (sometimes with text) – ‘this is crucial to understand’.
  • Star in a circle (sometimes with text) – ‘I have a question about this’.
Lectures without handouts 

Note-taking in lectures which don’t have handouts is a bit different, because the lecturer hasn’t provided the same framework to get you started. Or have they? Most lecturers use slides, and these should be available on Moodle a certain amount of time before the lecture, so you could use the slides as a starting point for note-taking. Rather than slavishly trying to write down everything the lecturer says, try to pick up key concepts, ideas or questions and note those down.

Above all, it’s important to keep these notes coherent and organised, so that when you come back to them for revision, they’ll be useful, not a mess of scattered, meaningless cues like ‘childhood – can we tell??’ and ‘importance of music (is it music?)’. One way to keep notes organised is the Cornell Method (see about halfway down this guide to note-taking) – taking notes to start, then summarising keywords and concepts afterwards. In this case, it’s vital to take the time to review the lecture very soon after it finishes – ideally within 12 hours – so ideas and concepts are fresh in your mind.

Other people prefer to use software like Obsidian – using this you can tag topics, pull out quotes and organise your thinking electronically. 

After the lecture 

While it’s tempting to file your notes and immediately look to the next thing – Cambridge student life is busy, after all – your interaction with a lecture shouldn’t finish once you leave the lecture theatre. After a lecture – usually within 12 hours, although you might choose to wait until the end of the week and review a few lectures in one go – it’s important to go back over your lecture notes and review your comments and queries. Look up answers to questions which you noted down (and write them under the question!); write down any outstanding questions for your supervision; add to or edit any freeform notes you’ve put in the margins. These will prepare you for revision, when the time comes. 

Lecture recordings 

The University started lecture recordings during the COVID pandemic, and most courses still record their lectures. (They’re not broadcast live – it usually takes a day or two for them to be uploaded to Moodle.) There are two potential uses for recordings: catching up on a missed lecture and revision. Looking at both of those in turn…

It can’t be overstated that it’s almost always better to go to lectures in person, rather than relying on lecture recordings. When you’re in a lecture theatre, it’s easier to be engaged with the lecturer and with the content. There are fewer distractions, you can pick up on a lecturer’s enthusiasm and nuance, and you’re in an environment where everyone else is also learning.  And it’s better to be up to date with your lectures rather than being a couple of days behind (because it can take a while to upload lectures to Moodle). The only really good excuse for watching a lecture recording instead of going to it live is if you are unavoidably unable to go – meaning illness or some other very good reason. You should expect this to happen a handful of times a term, not once or twice a week – something worth bearing in mind when you’re setting your commitments for extracurricular activities.

Planning to watch all your lectures again is not a sensible revision strategy. This is covered in more detail on the Revision page.

Finally, if you do use a lecture recording, engage with it in the way you would engage with a lecture. Quit all other programs on your computer, silence your phone, listen, take notes. And, above all, don’t increase the playback speed to get through the lecture faster. Lecturers think really carefully about how much content to cover in their allotted time, and usually push at the edges of how much it’s possible to take in. Respect them as teachers, and give the lecture the time and attention it deserves.

 

Learning in supervisions

As a Fresher, supervisions can feel daunting. Some subjects have one-to-one supervisions, some have group work, but in all cases, compared to a class at school, there’s nowhere to hide: your supervisor will ask you questions and discuss the work with you. Hopefully you will soon learn that this is actually a good thing: you will develop the ability to explain your reasoning, answer questions of your supervisor, ask questions and consider yourself how to arrive at the answers, and get a deeper understanding of the lecture material.

Before supervisions

As with a lecture, a supervision isn’t a standalone chunk of learning. You’ll almost always have to do some homework before it and hand that in; your supervisor may or discuss this with you, or give you written feedback, or both. You may have questions from your lectures (hopefully you will, if you’ve been taking notes as described above!); your supervisor will have a plan for how they’re going to develop your knowledge and skills.

If you do have questions, write them down, don’t just rely on yourself remembering them. You might want to review your notes or any lecture handouts to refamiliarize yourself with the content, and you may want to reread your homework to see what you found straightforward and what you struggled with. Even a small amount of preparation can greatly boost your supervision learning.

During supervisions

Though it might not feel possible, an hour can fly by. Your supervisor will aim to check your knowledge and understanding, push you to develop your thinking, and take you beyond your comfort zone to stretch you.

During the supervision, you’ll likely have time to bring up questions from your lectures. When that happens, it’s vital to take notes on what your supervisor says or where your discussion has gone. (Very few supervisors will mind if you take a moment to write some things down.) These notes are to help you when you come to revision, so make sure Future You will understand them.

As with lectures, it’s also worth writing down things you want to go and explore further, or key ideas or phrases. But, also as with lectures, don’t feel you have to slavishly write down everything your supervisor says: a supervision should be a discussion, not a one-way flow of information.

After supervisions

Many people come out of a supervision feeling like they’ve had a few rounds in a boxing ring – a sentiment shared by many students after their admissions interview. Don’t take this as meaning you’re stupid or shouldn’t be here! It’s the supervisor’s job to check your grasp of the fundamentals, and then to explore the edges of your knowledge and thinking, challenging your views and understanding. There will be things you don’t know or hadn’t thought of – but that’s true at all levels of academia, across all subjects. The aim should be that you should have had an intense discussion, and that from time to time things feel uncomfortable but not painful.

Again, in a similar way to with lectures, you should try to take some time to consolidate what you’ve learned, look up answers to outstanding questions, and write down notes for Future You to revise from. You might want to discuss these notes with anyone else in the supervision, or with friends doing the same subject – such discussion will help you develop your skills in analysis, critical thinking and explanation.