hello my name is emma and in today's video i am going to tell you about the best strategies
you can use when you're listening in lectures okay so this video is for anyone who is in college
university any type of program where they're taking courses that require a lot of listening
it's very difficult for many people to listen um in lecture so whether you speak english as
a first language or whether english is your second or third language for people who go to university
or college one of the most challenging parts can be understanding and remembering what you learned
in lecture so let's talk a little bit about um some of the types of people you might see in
your lecture why lectures are hard and why they're difficult to listen to and then i'll give you some
great strategies that i know really work that can help you in your listening so let's get started
imagine the situation you are in college and you're taking a really
hard college course maybe it's physics maybe it's um english or some sort of math course
and you have to sit there for two hours and listen now that's really hard for a lot of people to do
but this is the reality for many courses you might take there's a big um stress on listening
to professors talk so i'm going to tell you about some people i know and what they were
like during their lectures my brother was the type of person who would go to lectures for two hours
and he'd just sit there he would not write anything down he would just sit and listen
now the sad thing that happened with my brother is he did not remember anything so during the lecture
he understood and he would think oh okay yeah you know i don't need to take notes i understand but
when he would leave he'd forget everything and this was a big problem for him whenever it came
time to exams or tests now i had a friend when i was in university who would bring a tape recorder
and record the professor talking and so for the two hours she would be on facebook checking her
emails doing other things but not really listening and she would just record the professor talk
and then when she got home then she would listen to the recording again and again and again
so while she might have learned a lot of the material she spent hours doing this it was a lot
of time wasted where if she had just listened during the lecture it would have been a lot
easier for her and she wouldn't have spent so much time in her free time listening to this material
i had another friend who had a computer and would come to class and would type type everything the
professor was saying now this friend was really fast at typing and she could just type every word
the professor said and so her notes were always great but the problem is while she was typing
she didn't really listen well she didn't process the information that the professor was saying
because she was just typing everything he said word for word so she would spend a lot
of time reading her notes and studying from her notes which was also a bit of a waste of
time because she could have understood more during the lecture okay and now this is true
this is about me when i was in my first year of university it's taken me a long time to get really
good at listening in lectures but in my first year of university i was terrible i thought it would be
good if i sat in the front row because that way i would be paying a lot of attention and i could
take notes well but what often happened i took classes too early or too late in the evening and
i would fall asleep and it would be bad because i would sleep and then i was in the front row so the
professor could see me um and again i didn't do this on purpose it was always an accident i wanted
to stay awake and take notes but because i wasn't using the proper strategies i also wasted a lot
of time and i actually had more problems than the rest of these people because i didn't take notes
because i was asleep and i didn't listen so i didn't get any information from the lecturer
so there's many different types of people in colleges and universities many types of
students who have these types of problems and they don't use their time well in lectures they don't
listen well so i am going to teach you now some great strategies you can use that will help you
become better at listening to those lectures that might be really difficult or very long
that can really help you with achieve academic success okay so the key to doing really well
in listening in lectures is to put in the effort while you're listening
so this means you need to actively listen okay so you can't just listen be on your phone and
looking around the class no you really need to think about what the professor's saying
the other thing that will really help you is to be prepared and what do i mean by prepared well i'll
talk about that in in a moment but what should you bring to lecture how should what is your
plan for when you're in lecture it's important to be prepared and to have a plan in advance
so i think that active listening and preparation will help you have more success and actually save
you a lot of time because by doing this you don't have to keep re-listening to a lecture or you
don't have to spend all your time trying to figure out what you missed okay so let's look at what can
you do before the lecture because that's when this all starts before you go into the lecture
so sometimes at college or university you actually have a choice about what time you go to lecture so
maybe they have a course and it's offered at 9am and maybe on a different day it's offered at pm
so if you have this option really think about when do you listen the best
and again not everyone has a choice in this sometimes there is only one lecture and you
have to go no matter what but if there's a choice and you can choose what time
think about what is the best for you when i took statistics in university the first time i took it
i did not do well and that's because the course was at 9 00 a.m for me that was too early to
learn math and to be in lecture when i retook the course a little while later um i found that taking
the course at about 11am was actually really perfect for me my mind was very sharp at 11.
uh also important to know a lot of people start to feel tired or sleepy in the afternoon especially
around 3 p.m this has to do with our hormones and it has to do with our our uh sleep cycle so
know when you get tired for a lot of people around 2 3 4 p.m they're very tired and maybe
avoid having a lecture at this time if you can because it is harder to listen if you're tired
um okay what do you bring to lecture you should try to pack your bag the night before
just so you're prepared and it's important to bring water a water bottle because keeping
hydrated will actually help you stay awake and keep you from being distracted
it's good to bring snacks what kind of snacks you know healthy snacks so not
like mcdonald's or something that's going to make you feel super tired
and sluggish but maybe a granola bar or something that's healthy because during the the lecture if
you have a break you can take a bit of a snack and then that can help you with your thinking as well
um sometimes in certain classes they give you the lecture notes in advance so if your professor is
very kind and gives you lecture notes or slides in advance it's good to bring these um and then for
some people they like to bring their computer to lecture this is a very important point you really
need to know yourself are you the type of person that if you have your computer there you're going
to be on facebook the whole time or instagram or tinder or what whatever websites are popular
a lot of students are very distracted in class these days and it's a total waste of time because
they're too busy on their computers so they're not listening which means why are they even there i
think what is very helpful for a lot of students is not to bring their computer but to only bring
the slides or have the computer but keep it in your backpack and pull it out if you need
it um or if you do bring your computer and you like to type your notes maybe use some sort of
um something that will prevent you from going on the internet so
just know yourself with your computer because this is a trap a lot of students fall into computers
can be very distracting another point on this is a lot of research has actually shown that writing
your notes by hand is actually better than typing your notes and this is because when you write your
notes you tend to write slower and you don't write everything so you process what you're hearing a
lot more and by processing uh you remember a lot more if you're typing you might type too fast
you might type every word the professor says and you're not really processing the information
so for a lot of people it's actually easier to remember information if they write it by hand
so i recommend writing it by hand that's how i always do it i never bring a computer
to lecture because i find it's too distracting and i don't remember as much
another part of your plan is uh oh here look at your slides
readings early so sometimes the professor will give you an assigned reading
ideally it's good to read everything before the class but some people are too busy with that
or to do that or they're not going to so if you don't have time at least just read key words see
what the reading is about you know look at the title look at the headings the subtitle
this information can or even in the slides you can look at the pictures in the slides or
the titles of the slides this allows your brain to start working
and it starts working before you go to lecture which will prepare you to actually learn so
it's really good to look at the slides and the assigned readings in advance even if you don't
uh read everything closely you can still prepare yourself to learn that way and to listen better
if while you're looking at the slides and the assigned readings
if you see there are things that are the same in both of them
that often is important because professors often test on things where there's overlap so if the
reading says something and the professor says the same thing or the slides say the same thing
that often is tested so that's a hint if you're wondering what to study that can help you later on
um there's a lot of new terms you'll hear in lecture a lot of new words you've never
heard before you know you can look at these words in advance if they are in
the readings or in the slides learn what they mean so that way when the professor says them
you're not wondering oh i have no idea what that means okay and a lot of the times professors will
give a definition of a word but sometimes they don't so this can be very helpful
okay my next tip is arrive to lecture early it's not good to come running in 10 minutes late
because your brain is going to be stressed and stress prevents learning okay and not
only that you will distract everyone around you so please arrive to class early and this way you can
be calm take your time getting prepared for lecture and this will help you listen better
my next tip choose your seat well you want to be in a place where it's quiet um and there's
not a lot of distraction if you sit at the back door people are going to keep coming in and going
and so maybe it's harder to listen because you keep seeing other people come and go if you sit
in the front seat um you know that might be an idea for some people i never liked doing that
personally because i told you i fell asleep in the front seat so um i feel like the professor notices
you more but it could be a good spot for some people too the main thing is try to find a spot
that is not does not have too many distractions okay and where you can hear really well
so this is what you do before the lecture let's see what you do during the lecture
okay so there are many different ways to take notes and it's important to have a system
and finding a system that works best for you okay for me personally i always like
the cornell approach i have a video on this if you're interested some people like to
take notes using something like a flowchart where they don't write full sentences they just um
you know draw circles and with arrows to show how things connect um some people actually
like to just write everything out so find the system that works best for you and stick with it
it will make your life a lot easier to be consistent in your note taking also it's good to
come up with a system of key words or words you see a lot so for example whenever i'm in lecture
and the professor says because i don't write the word because because that will take too
long what i write is bc and so whenever i read my notes i know this means bc
because or if um the professor says therefore what i write instead of therefore is i put three dots
so having your own system and you can use different symbols or different abbreviations
can help save you time when you're taking notes so come up with a system and stick to it it's also
very important in lecture to pay attention to information that is repeated
a lot of professors keep saying the same thing in different ways
if you hear the message again and again and again this is likely something that's important
and maybe on the exam so listen for repeated information
also speaking of exams or tests a lot of a lot of professors like to give clues
to students so what they might say during lecture is they might say um you know make
sure you study this it's very important or this will be on the final exam it might even just sit
straight out like this or they might say hint hint wink wink this is important for the exam
listening for these um hints or tips can help you so you know what to study what i
like to do is when a professor says something like this i take my red pen and i put a giant
circle around it or a giant red star so i really notice it for when i go back and study my notes
it's also important to listen for language cues there's a lot of things happening during lecture
a lot of information coming at you and it's easy to get lost in all the information so one thing
that can help is knowing when the professor is changing topics or giving an example or
giving smaller points or details and you can use language cues to help you with this
so for example if the professor is about to change the topic they might say now let's move on to
and then they'll tell you what the next topic is uh if they want to emphasize something they might
say the important thing is as soon as you hear this you know okay it's important write it down
next i'm going to talk about again this might be a signal that they're going to change topics
so this is helpful in the organization of your notes as well as to understand what's happening
because again it's easy to get lost in lecture
my next point is about the organization of the lecture it's good to know what
your professors like and you'll notice different professors do things differently some professors
like to just say exactly what's in the textbook and their lecture is organized the exact same way
as the textbook so if you know that then listening isn't so important because you
know okay the textbook and the lecture are the same i can get the information in either place
other professors might give a lecture that's very different from the textbook and it might
be more like a spoken essay they give you their argument or their idea and then they give you
uh reasons why they believe this or reasons why this is how it is um and then they might
give you details so understanding how a professor gives a lecture and how their
their uh lecture is organized can really help you um understand what the professor is saying
one thing i like to do in lectures is ask why why is the professor saying this understanding uh
the answer to why and how everything connects can help you understand the main idea of the lecture
which is important so you always want to ask yourself why is he talking about this or why
is she talking about this and your answer can help you figure out what's important to listen for um
some profs also like discussion in class so they will have you think
about something and then they will ask you for your opinion so it's also good to know
people who give lectures like this because you might be expected to speak during a lecture
now there's so much information so what happens if you miss something
i had no idea what the professor just said i stopped listening for a moment
well what i like to do is i put a mark so maybe like a star
beside you know that area and i wait until break at the break i ask my friend or my classmate what
did the professor say here i notice a lot of people will ask during lecture they'll turn to
the person beside them and say hey what what did he just say i did i didn't get it the problem is
then you both miss the very next point and then it's easier to become lost so don't panic if you
miss something just put a star and at the break ask your classmates or if they don't know you can
go up and ask the the professor and hopefully they'll be able to tell you what you missed
all right now let's look at some other strategies for how you can become better at listening during
lectures okay so i've talked about what to do during lecture for a lot of lectures you'll
actually get a break it might be 5 minutes 10 minutes or 15 minutes it's important to use
these breaks well okay so my first piece of advice is talk to your classmates and get to know them
your classmates can be very helpful in a class especially if you miss information or maybe
you're sick one day um or maybe even to form a study group it's very important to get to know
people in your class because this will really help you be more successful so how do you get
to know people in your class well what i usually do is i talk to somebody close by me and i notice
something i like about them maybe they have a nice backpack or um an interesting necklace or
you know a nice shirt i might say oh i like your bag where did you get it from and this can open up
conversation or i might talk about the lecture wow our professor just said something so interesting
so there's many different ways to get to know your classmates but make an effort
okay and also you know choose your classmates that you talk to wisely
if you notice the person was on facebook the whole time during the lecture
maybe they're not the best classmate to talk to um you know to create a
study group with look for somebody who is actually really interested in the material
another piece of advice is during breaks it's good to walk around or to stretch or do some
sort of light exercise the reason is when you move blood goes back to the brain and this helps
helps wake you up and it also helps you with your learning okay so if you just stay in your
seat you're gonna get more tired and it's gonna be a lot harder um to listen to the
second half of the lecture so get up and get moving and that way you will have more energy
i had one friend who would go up and down the stairs during um breaks in order to
get that blood flow so get moving during breaks another option is you can talk to your professor
some professors really like this they like to talk to students other professors don't so know
your professor you can ask them questions about what you're learning about or maybe
you didn't understand something this is a good time during break to talk to them
finally you've made it the lecture is finished okay good for you it was hard listening for those
two hours so what can you do after the lecture well it's always a good idea to review look at the
assigned readings okay maybe you didn't read them before class well now's a good time to read them
because everything is fresh in your mind or you can look at your notes again just take a moment
look at what you wrote so review these things can be really helpful and save you time in the
future you can also discuss what you heard with classmates sometimes just talking about something
helps you to remember it better finally if there's something you don't understand
from the lecture you've talked to your classmates you still don't understand it's really confusing
to you it's a good idea to make an appointment with your professor during their office hours
so office hours are a time when professors can answer your question and because they have an
hour or two devoted to this they're not in a rush so they can explain things to you
clearly and they can take their time sometimes if you ask them a question just at break or after
class the professor can't give you the best answer because they're in a rush they want to get going
so it's good to to find out what are the office hours and um go to them okay this is also a great
way to connect with your professor which can help you in the future if you need references or if you
are looking for maybe a job or something like that okay so get to know your professor it's a
really good thing to do during lecture so i know i've given you a lot a lot of different strategies
now it takes time to change so what i recommend is trying out a few of these things first
see what helps okay you don't have to do everything in this video but try to take
some of the tips that work the best for you and try them out see if it helps you with your
listening i've been in university or i've taken many university courses and so i have tried all
of these tips and for me they have all been very helpful so i wish you the best of luck
and i also wanted to tell you that if you wanted to practice what you learned in this video
you can come visit our website at www.engvid.com there you can take a quiz on everything shown in
this video that can help you with reviewing the material you can also subscribe to my channel
i have a lot of other resources on all sorts of topics just remember to ring the bell finally you
can also visit my website at www.teacheremma.com and there you can find more resources as well as
information about me so thank you so much for your time and for watching until next time take care