What notes are actually for

Most people think notes are a recording. They try to write down what the teacher said, as fast as they can, and end up with three pages they never look at again.

That page failed at the only job it had. Notes are not a recording — they are a tool for remembering later. Which means a good page has to do two things:

• Be short enough to reread. If rereading it takes as long as the class did, you will not do it.
• Let you test yourself, not just look at the answers. Recognising a page is not the same as knowing it.

Everything in this lesson comes from those two rules. There is nothing to memorise — once you know what the page is for, the layout is obvious.