To turn lecture slides into study notes, do not copy them. Slides are prompts, not explanations. Add the spoken explanation, turn each slide into a short note in your own words, group slides by idea, and convert the notes into questions you can answer from memory. If you want to use a tool such as Type to Study, export your PowerPoint to PDF first.
Why slides alone make poor notes
A slide holds a headline and a few bullets. The reasoning, examples and exceptions were said aloud. If you revise from slides alone, you will recognise the words without being able to explain them. The aim of notes is to rebuild the explanation in your own words.
Before the lecture
- Skim the slides for 10 minutes. Note the structure and any term you do not know.
- Write two or three questions you hope the lecture will answer.
- Print or open the slides with space beside them for your own notes.
During the lecture
Write what the slide does not say: the reasons, examples, links between ideas and any warnings about what is examined. Mark anything you do not follow with a question mark and ask later. Do not transcribe the slide itself.
After the lecture: the 5-step method
- Within 24 hours, go through the slides once, adding what you remember from the lecture. Memory of the explanation fades quickly.
- For each slide, write one or two sentences in your own words: what is the point?
- Group slides into three to six themes. Notes organised by idea are easier to learn than notes ordered by slide number.
- Draw one diagram per theme: a flowchart, a timeline, a table or a concept map.
- Turn each note into a question on a separate list or flashcard.
Example
| Slide says | Your note | Question to make |
|---|---|---|
| Supply and demand: price equilibrium | Price settles where the amount buyers want equals the amount sellers offer. Above it there is a surplus, so price falls; below it a shortage, so price rises. | What happens to price when there is a surplus, and why? |
| Mitosis: phases PMAT | Prophase, metaphase, anaphase, telophase: chromosomes condense, line up, separate, then two nuclei form. | Put the phases of mitosis in order and say what happens in each. |
Using a tool with slides
Type to Study does not accept PowerPoint files directly. In PowerPoint, Keynote or Google Slides, use File, then Export (or Save as) PDF, and upload the PDF along with any Word or text notes you have. It reads the PDF, uses the headings to form units and lessons, and builds flashcards, quizzes and exam-style questions from it, citing the pages. Lessons from files use only the files you upload. If your slides are mostly images with little text, add your own notes as a Word or text file so the course has the explanation as well as the headlines. Slides that are scanned are read with OCR, though results are best when the text is clear.
Active ways to use the notes
- Blurting: close your notes and write everything you remember about a theme, then check what you missed.
- Teach it: explain a theme aloud to someone else or to an empty room.
- Past questions: answer them from memory, then compare with your notes and fix gaps.
- Flashcards on a spaced schedule: review after 1, 3, 7, 14 and 30 days.
Common mistakes
- Making notes that duplicate the slides. If you can find it on the slide, you do not need to rewrite it.
- Waiting until exam time to make sense of the slides.
- Highlighting everything. Highlight only terms you need to define.
- Ignoring the reading list. Lecturers sometimes skip detail that the textbook covers and that the exam uses.
- Skipping the questions step. Notes you never test yourself on are only reading material.
If the slides are poor
Some slide decks are only a list of headings. In that case, go to the textbook chapter on each heading, read the section, and write your note from it. Ask the lecturer for the learning outcomes, which tell you what you must be able to do.
Done well, this takes about ten minutes per lecture slide-set beyond the lecture itself, and it replaces the hours of rereading you would otherwise do before an exam.