Shadowing Practice: how to make notes like an Oxford student | learn everything - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
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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,
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and produce 2,000 to 2,500 word essays every week.
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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.
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It is highly efficient, especially for humanities and language subjects.
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If you want better grades but want to spend less time studying, watch this.
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This method has three parts.
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What to do before note-taking, how to actually take notes, and how to revise using these notes.
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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.
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Step 1.
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Choose your medium.
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One of the greatest debates in note-taking, paper or laptop.
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There are distinct advantages and disadvantages to both.
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Most research seems to suggest that writing notes by hand, as opposed to typing them out, drastically helps with absorbing and understanding information.
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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.
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On the other hand, typing notes is faster.
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It is also far easier to parse through and organize typed notes than piles of handwritten paper.
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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.
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Given such clear pros and cons, step one to my method is to mix both mediums.
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What I do is I make the notes on a physical notebook first
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and then when I'm done with going through the chapter, let's say, I type the notes up into a Word document.
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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.
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It's just not the same as writing on paper.
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Step two, learn the exam.
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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.
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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.
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This means that even before you start taking notes, you need to have a look at the past papers and the mark schemes.
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This is one thing I refused to do in high school
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because it made me anxious to look at past papers before learning the material, but I wasted a lot of time as a result.
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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.
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Download as many of these as you can, then review the past papers with the mark schemes next to them.
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This will show you three things.
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Number one, what topics come up most frequently, and trust me, they repeat very frequently, especially for science papers.
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2. Where the points are rewarded and where most students make mistakes. And 3.
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What types of answers you will need to produce, whether that's short form, paragraphs, or full essays.
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Step 3.
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Use more than one source.
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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.
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This information can come from various places and in my experience, the more sources you have, the better.
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For most subjects in high school and Dima University, you will have a main textbook.
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That'll be our foundation.
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But there will also be worksheets distributed in class, other textbooks from different publishers, online resources, research you do on your own,
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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.
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This will help you catch all the information you will ever
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need to produce answers better than other students who just use one textbook and left it at that.
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Now that we have all the necessary materials, it is time to move on to note-taking.
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But first, two things to keep in mind.
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One, most students start taking notes as a way of revising right before an exam.
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This is unfortunately a big mistake.
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Note-taking should not be your main form of revision.
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Think of it rather as preparing for revision.
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The actual reviewing and learning will happen after our notes are ready.
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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.
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Instead, you should be creating a notes master document for each subject
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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.
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Now, keeping all of this in mind, this is how I make notes.
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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.
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Number one, rather than diving straight into making notes, read or skim through the chapter first, trying to identify three things.
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The arguments being made, the details of those arguments, and the evidence being used to support those arguments.
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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.
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We want a bird's eye view first.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Another argument is that Germany was inexperienced with democracy at this time and therefore more likely to fail.
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These big arguments should be the anchors with which you structure your notes, so note them down as the main points.
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Then underneath, note down the details of the arguments as indented bullet points.
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And then under those, note the evidence for each of the arguments.
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Two, now from before, we talked about the importance of knowing your exams and using more than one source.
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For example, IB history exams encourage the use of historiography in your essays.
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The textbook includes it here, a quote from Peter Gay, a renowned Yale historian.
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But everyone is going to be saying this passage in the textbook because most people use the same textbook.
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We need to go beyond that.
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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.
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For example, this quote from his seminal work, Weimer Culture, The Outsider as Insider, for a time the Republic had a real chance.
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Whatever some derisive historians have said, if the end of the Republic was implied in in its beginning, the end was not inevitable.
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A slightly different argument from what the quote in the textbook alone suggests, therefore making our understanding of historiography richer.
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Three, once you finish writing this initial draft of the notes, copy it onto a Word document.
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This helps to store the notes safely and also gives you a chance to review the notes as you're typing them up.
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Four, going forward, update this initial draft of your notes whenever you get new resources or more information.
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So this master notes document is something that you should update constantly throughout school and not just before exams.
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One tip is that you should keep close track of where you get your notes from
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because we will be updating it constantly and this can make it very difficult to remember where bits of information is from.
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Personally, I like recording sources using footnotes and noting page numbers etc using superscripts.
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By the way, make sure you check out the full demonstration of my note-taking method linked down below
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if you want to see how this looks in action.
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It is on my free Patreon where I post all of my free study resources not only on school work
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but also university applications free of charge.
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Now that we have a first draft of our master notes document, here's how I use them to actually revise for exams.
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First, I print out the notes and go through them using highlighters.
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One key thing that I do during this review process is making notes in the margins of my own notes.
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If I notice any thorough lines, for example, or things connecting with each other, I note that down.
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I also note down any questions that I have.
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Another thing that I do while reviewing the notes
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that I don't think really anyone talks about
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but is extremely helpful is answering hypothetical essay questions in my head as I go over the information.
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So for example, when reviewing the Weimar Republic, I imagine answering questions like what are the causes of the downfall of the Weimar Republic,
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etc. So actively engaging your brain while reading.
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I like reordering my notes based on different approaches and also different essay questions.
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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.
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But if I want to brainstorm answering a potential thematic essay question, I list the notes out again by theme.
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And this is the main benefit of copying your notes out onto the laptop
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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.
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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.
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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.
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And two, making notes is a step before actual revision.
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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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Boost Your English Speaking with Proven Note-Taking & Shadowing Techniques
Want to improve English pronunciation and master fluency? The video shares a game-changing note-taking method that doubles as a tool for language practice—perfect for learners using learn English with YouTube strategies. This approach targets the milestone of active listening and synthesis, a key step toward natural speech. By combining handwritten and typed notes, you train your brain to process information deeply, mirroring the shadowing technique where you repeat phrases to build muscle memory.
Phrase Bank: Reusable Expressions for Clear Communication
- "drastically helps with absorbing and understanding information"
- "synthesizing it into your own words"
- "catch all the information you will ever need"
- "preparing for revision" (adapt to "preparing for practice" in language learning)
These phrases are ideal for shadowspeaks practice—repeat them aloud, focusing on rhythm and stress to sound more native.
Fix Your Weak Spots: Pronunciation & Rhythm
Many learners struggle with pacing and stress in longer sentences. The video’s method of rewriting notes forces you to shadow speak mentally: as you type, you’re implicitly practicing how to articulate complex ideas. Notice how the speaker stresses words like "efficient" and "synthesizing"—mimic this to avoid flat pronunciation. By combining note-taking with intentional repetition, you’ll turn passive learning into active speaking practice, fixing weak spots in real time.
Whether you’re using paper, a laptop, or an iPad, this technique bridges note-taking and language mastery. Start today, and watch your fluency—and grades—soar.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | are expected · are rewarded · be examined |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | have said · has changed |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | students who just · someone who has |
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.