Pratique du Shadowing: how to make notes like an Oxford student | learn everything - Apprendre l'anglais à l'oral avec la vidéo

As you know, Oxford students are expected to go through long reading lists of anywhere between 10 to 30 books, then remember all of this information, process it within a few days,

and produce 2,000 to 2,500 word essays every week.

After getting through this grueling process, I figured out the perfect note-taking method for me, a method I am using as a PhD student at Harvard too.

It is highly efficient, especially for humanities and language subjects.

If you want better grades but want to spend less time studying, watch this.

This method has three parts.

What to do before note-taking, how to actually take notes, and how to revise using these notes.

I'll also be using this IB textbook to demonstrate my points in real time, so to speak, but this method really applies to every subject.

Step 1.

Choose your medium.

One of the greatest debates in note-taking, paper or laptop.

There are distinct advantages and disadvantages to both.

Most research seems to suggest that writing notes by hand, as opposed to typing them out, drastically helps with absorbing and understanding information.

However, it does take much longer than typing, and the notes are more fragile than, say, a typed copy, which you can save and reprint whenever you want.

On the other hand, typing notes is faster.

It is also far easier to parse through and organize typed notes than piles of handwritten paper.

The cons are, as Afra mentioned, you retain less information when typing notes, and there's always the temptation to copy and paste information directly without synthesizing it into your own words first.

Given such clear pros and cons, step one to my method is to mix both mediums.

What I do is I make the notes on a physical notebook first

and then when I'm done with going through the chapter, let's say, I type the notes up into a Word document.

I know some people like making notes on their iPad, which I think could also be a good solution, but I'm just too old-fashioned for that.

It's just not the same as writing on paper.

Step two, learn the exam.

I strongly believe that for everything, you have to know your audience if you want to do that thing well, whatever that thing might be.

After all, what you produce, in our case the exam answers, needs to be what our audience, again in our case the examiners, wants to see.

This means that even before you start taking notes, you need to have a look at the past papers and the mark schemes.

This is one thing I refused to do in high school

because it made me anxious to look at past papers before learning the material, but I wasted a lot of time as a result.

Most, if not all, exam boards will have past papers, mark schemes, and even examiner reports you can access either online or through your school.

Download as many of these as you can, then review the past papers with the mark schemes next to them.

This will show you three things.

Number one, what topics come up most frequently, and trust me, they repeat very frequently, especially for science papers.

2. Where the points are rewarded and where most students make mistakes. And 3.

What types of answers you will need to produce, whether that's short form, paragraphs, or full essays.

Step 3.

Use more than one source.

Once you become familiar with how you're going to be examined and what kinds of questions you're going to be asked, it is now time to collect the raw materials, the actual content that we need to learn from.

This information can come from various places and in my experience, the more sources you have, the better.

For most subjects in high school and Dima University, you will have a main textbook.

That'll be our foundation.

But there will also be worksheets distributed in class, other textbooks from different publishers, online resources, research you do on your own,

etc. Try to pull as many of these different sources as possible, and during our note-taking process, we'll be synthesizing all of this into one master notes document.

This will help you catch all the information you will ever

need to produce answers better than other students who just use one textbook and left it at that.

Now that we have all the necessary materials, it is time to move on to note-taking.

But first, two things to keep in mind.

One, most students start taking notes as a way of revising right before an exam.

This is unfortunately a big mistake.

Note-taking should not be your main form of revision.

Think of it rather as preparing for revision.

The actual reviewing and learning will happen after our notes are ready.

And two, if you're doing a program with final exams after one or two years, so a longer program, you should not take notes in small spurts before in-school assessments in in a disorganized fashion.

Instead, you should be creating a notes master document for each subject

and finish this well before officially starting your revision process for the final exams, which should be from at least two months before the exams start.

Now, keeping all of this in mind, this is how I make notes.

I'll be using this Weimar public section in the IB History Authoritarian States textbook, but again, this is just an example, and this method applies to all subjects.

Number one, rather than diving straight into making notes, read or skim through the chapter first, trying to identify three things.

The arguments being made, the details of those arguments, and the evidence being used to support those arguments.

Do not dive straight into making notes while reading the textbook, because then it is really easy to get lost in all of the information.

We want a bird's eye view first.

This is why I think writing notes out is better, because it physically discourages you from copying the text directly without first understanding how the information is laid out.

If you review this section on the Rheinland Republic, for example, even though it is organized chronologically, there are multiple arguments being made here on why the Rheinland Republic eventually failed.

For example, one reason it failed, it argues, was the feeling by some in Germany that they were stabbed in the back by some forces in the country.

Another argument is that Germany was inexperienced with democracy at this time and therefore more likely to fail.

These big arguments should be the anchors with which you structure your notes, so note them down as the main points.

Then underneath, note down the details of the arguments as indented bullet points.

And then under those, note the evidence for each of the arguments.

Two, now from before, we talked about the importance of knowing your exams and using more than one source.

For example, IB history exams encourage the use of historiography in your essays.

The textbook includes it here, a quote from Peter Gay, a renowned Yale historian.

But everyone is going to be saying this passage in the textbook because most people use the same textbook.

We need to go beyond that.

So what I would do is find anything by Peter Gay to supplement this quote, using more than just the textbook and making my notes.

For example, this quote from his seminal work, Weimer Culture, The Outsider as Insider, for a time the Republic had a real chance.

Whatever some derisive historians have said, if the end of the Republic was implied in in its beginning, the end was not inevitable.

A slightly different argument from what the quote in the textbook alone suggests, therefore making our understanding of historiography richer.

Three, once you finish writing this initial draft of the notes, copy it onto a Word document.

This helps to store the notes safely and also gives you a chance to review the notes as you're typing them up.

Four, going forward, update this initial draft of your notes whenever you get new resources or more information.

So this master notes document is something that you should update constantly throughout school and not just before exams.

One tip is that you should keep close track of where you get your notes from

because we will be updating it constantly and this can make it very difficult to remember where bits of information is from.

Personally, I like recording sources using footnotes and noting page numbers etc using superscripts.

By the way, make sure you check out the full demonstration of my note-taking method linked down below

if you want to see how this looks in action.

It is on my free Patreon where I post all of my free study resources not only on school work

but also university applications free of charge.

Now that we have a first draft of our master notes document, here's how I use them to actually revise for exams.

First, I print out the notes and go through them using highlighters.

One key thing that I do during this review process is making notes in the margins of my own notes.

If I notice any thorough lines, for example, or things connecting with each other, I note that down.

I also note down any questions that I have.

Another thing that I do while reviewing the notes

that I don't think really anyone talks about

but is extremely helpful is answering hypothetical essay questions in my head as I go over the information.

So for example, when reviewing the Weimar Republic, I imagine answering questions like what are the causes of the downfall of the Weimar Republic,

etc. So actively engaging your brain while reading.

I like reordering my notes based on different approaches and also different essay questions.

When I'm studying a particular field, for example, and I want to find out how our perception of the topic has changed over time, I order the sources again by date of publication.

100

But if I want to brainstorm answering a potential thematic essay question, I list the notes out again by theme.

101

And this is the main benefit of copying your notes out onto the laptop

102

because it allows you to do precisely this sort of personalization depending on what kinds of essays

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or tests that you are preparing for.

104

So this is how I make notes as someone who has had to take so many exams in her life, but so many students mistake making notes as revising.

105

Just remember two things.

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One, your notes should build you up for success, meaning you should structure it to fit what you need for your purposes, in our case, exams.

107

And two, making notes is a step before actual revision.

108

We use the notes to revise.

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Make sure you check out the full demonstration of my note-taking method linked down below, and thank you so much for watching.

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Vocabulaire et conseils d’expression pour cette leçon

Cette leçon d’expression orale de niveau B2 s’appuie sur la vidéo « how to make notes like an Oxford student ». Les mots qui reviennent le plus souvent : note, exam, textbook, argument, method. Cette vidéo contient 109 phrases et 1840 mots à répéter en shadowing. La partie parlée dure 8:34. Le locuteur parle vite, environ 215 mots par minute : attendez-vous à des liaisons et à des sons réduits. 86 % des mots font partie des 3 000 mots les plus courants en anglais ; le reste mérite d’être vu avant de commencer.

Vocabulaire clé de cette vidéo

Les 15 mots les plus avancés de la vidéo, avec leur prononciation et leur sens :

Mot	Prononciation	Sens
textbook nom	/ˈtɛkst.bʊk/	manuel, livre de classe
revise verbe	/ɹɪˈvaɪz/	revoir
revision nom	/ɹəˈvɪʒ.ən/	modification
historiography nom	/hɪˌstɒɹiˈɒɡɹəfi/	historiographie
synthesize verbe	/ˈsɪnθəsaɪz/	synthétiser
examiner nom	/əɡˈzæmɪnɚ/	examinateur, examinatrice
historian nom	/hɪˈstɔɹi.ən/	historien, historienne
organize verbe	/ˈɔɹɡənaɪz/	organiser
demonstration nom	/dɛmənˈstɹeɪʃən/	démonstration
dive verbe	/daɪv/	nager, plonger
chronologically adverbe	/ˌkɹɒnəˈlɒdʒɪkli/	chronologiquement
derisive adjectif	/dɪˈɹaɪ.sɪv/	dérisoire, ridiculeironique
footnote nom	/ˈfʊtˌnoʊt/	note en bas de page, note de bas de page
highlighter nom	/ˈhaɪ.laɪt.ɚ/	surligneur
personalization nom	/ˌpɝs(ə)nəlaɪˈzeɪʃən/	personnalisation

Les verbes à particule que vous entendrez

Mot	Prononciation	Sens
go through verbe		traverser
check out verbe		mater, regarder
come up verbe		se montrer, sortir du bois
figure out verbe		cerner
find out verbe		découvrir, savoir
get through verbe	/ɡɛt ˈθɹu/	franchir

La grammaire de cette vidéo

Les structures que le locuteur utilise le plus, avec les mots exacts de la vidéo :

Structure	Dans la vidéo
Voix passive be + participe passé — l’accent est mis sur ce qui arrive, pas sur qui le fait	are expected · are rewarded · be examined
Present perfect have/has + participe passé — une action passée qui compte encore maintenant	have said · has changed
Propositions relatives who / which + proposition — une précision sur une personne ou une chose	students who just · someone who has

Prononciation à surveiller

Le locuteur utilise 12 contractions et formes réduites, comme you're, I'm, I'll. Prononcez-les sous leur forme courte, telles que vous les entendez.

Les sons « th »: synthesize /ˈsɪnθəsaɪz/, thematic /θɪˈmætɪk/, hypothetical /ˌhaɪpəˈθɛtɪkəl/, thorough /ˈθʌɹoʊ/, underneath /ˌʌndɚˈniθ/
Les sons « sh » et « zh »: revision /ɹəˈvɪʒ.ən/, demonstration /dɛmənˈstɹeɪʃən/, personalization /ˌpɝs(ə)nəlaɪˈzeɪʃən/, temptation /ˌtɛmpˈteɪʃən/, anxious /ˈæŋkʃəs/
Mots longs — placez bien l’accent: historiography /hɪˌstɒɹiˈɒɡɹəfi/, examiner /əɡˈzæmɪnɚ/, historian /hɪˈstɔɹi.ən/, demonstration /dɛmənˈstɹeɪʃən/, chronologically /ˌkɹɒnəˈlɒdʒɪkli/

Les sons difficiles pour les francophones :

/h/ — il se souffle, il n’est pas muet: historiography /hɪˌstɒɹiˈɒɡɹəfi/, historian /hɪˈstɔɹi.ən/, highlighter /ˈhaɪ.laɪt.ɚ/, hypothetical /ˌhaɪpəˈθɛtɪkəl/
/tʃ/ et /dʒ/ — à ne pas adoucir en « ch » et « j »: chronologically /ˌkɹɒnəˈlɒdʒɪkli/, discourage /dɪsˈkɝɪd͡ʒ/, disadvantage /ˌdɪsədˈvæntɪd͡ʒ/, fragile /ˈfɹæd͡ʒəl/
/r/ anglais — langue recourbée, sans frotter la gorge: revise /ɹɪˈvaɪz/, revision /ɹəˈvɪʒ.ən/, historiography /hɪˌstɒɹiˈɒɡɹəfi/, historian /hɪˈstɔɹi.ən/, organize /ˈɔɹɡənaɪz/

Comment s’entraîner avec cette vidéo

Écoutez la vidéo en entier une fois sans parler et notez les mots que vous ne connaissez pas.
Commencez à la vitesse 0,75×, répétez phrase par phrase, puis revenez à la vitesse normale quand cela devient facile.
Enregistrez-vous et comparez avec l’original, en faisant attention à des mots comme textbook, revise, revision.

Qu'est-ce que la technique du Shadowing ?

Le Shadowing est une technique d'apprentissage des langues fondée sur la science, développée à l'origine pour la formation des interprètes professionnels. Le principe est simple mais puissant : vous écoutez de l'anglais natif et le répétez immédiatement à voix haute — comme une ombre suivant le locuteur avec un décalage de 1 à 2 secondes. Les recherches montrent une amélioration significative de la précision de la prononciation, de l'intonation, du rythme, des liaisons, de la compréhension orale et de la fluidité.

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