How often should you review your notes to ensure you don’t forget

If you're like most students, you're probably not reviewing your notes as often as you could be.

Many students think that if they just take enough notes in class, they'll be able to remember everything and ace the test. Unfortunately, that's not how it works.

If you want to study effectively, then you need to review your notes regularly. Here are some guidelines to help you decide how often you should review your lecture notes:

1 hour after class: For each class session, spend at least one hour after class reviewing your notes. This will give your brain time to process what happened during class and begin making connections between ideas.

2-3 days later: After two or three days have passed since a lecture, review your notes again — preferably while sitting in the same room where the lecture took place. This will help reinforce memories of what was said in class and help trigger long-term memories for those concepts that may not be immediately accessible from simply looking at written words on paper (or computer screen).

1 week later: Browse through your notes again after one week. Spaced repetition helps a lot for ensuring the information you learnt is saved in your long term memory.