Turn a recorded lecture into study notes that stick
A recording is not notes. Hours of audio, or pages of transcript, only help if you do something with them within a day or two. This is a routine that takes about twenty minutes after a lecture and makes the rest of the semester easier.
Mark, do not transcribe
While the lecture runs, your job is to follow it. When something matters (a definition, a date, a formula the lecturer says will be on the exam, or a point you did not understand), mark that moment and keep listening. A hundred words of notes typed mid-lecture cost you a hundred words of lecture.
Summarise the same day
- Write what the lecture was about in five sentences, from memory.
- Open the transcript and notes. Where do they differ from what you wrote? Fix your summary, not theirs.
- Look at each marked moment. Rewrite it as a question you could be asked.
Turn marks into questions
A list of questions is the best revision material there is, because answering is what an exam asks of you. Put the answer under each question in your own words, and keep the time of the moment so you can go back to the exact sentence.
Keep the terms of a course in one place
Make a glossary per course and add every new term the day you meet it. Searching a lecture for a word you half remember is quick; searching your memory is not.
Review on a schedule
- The next day: read your summary once.
- After a week: answer the questions without looking.
- Before the exam: answer them again, and re-read only the ones you got wrong.
Where Konspekt fits
Konspekt writes a first version for you (a summary, key points, terms and the moments you marked), lets you ask questions that are answered from what was said, with the times, and exports to PDF, Markdown or plain text. Treat that first version as a draft: the learning is in editing it into your own words.