Shadowing Practice: how to take notes like the top 1% of students - Learn English Speaking with YouTube
B2
Alright, welcome back to class everyone.
204 sentences
If sentences are too short or too long, click Edit to adjust them.
1
Alright, welcome back to class everyone.
2
Wait, could you repeat that?
3
Repeat what?
4
What you just said.
5
Welcome back to class?
6
Welcome back to...
7
Thank you.
8
Class.
9
No problem.
10
No...
11
Pro...
12
...plem.
13
Okay, what are you doing?
14
What?
15
What are you doing?
16
Stop that!
17
Please, please stop.
18
I mean, I know the feeling.
19
I know how it feels to straighten your wrist and your neck as you're trying to copy down everything your teacher says.
20
But in these instances, note-taking is often a comfort mechanism and not necessarily a learning mechanism.
21
Scribbling everything down as fast as possible gives us a false sense of progress.
22
Although our hands are active, our mind usually isn't.
23
In this video, I'm going to talk about five common note-taking mistakes and how to fix them.
24
Alright, mistake number one, transcribing instead of translating.
25
So as we covered at the start of this video, you should never transcribe your lecture.
26
If you are trying to copy down every single word your teacher says, you're probably doing yourself a disservice.
27
Why?
28
Because you can most likely find the lecture recordings and the lecture slides online.
29
We often rush to take notes because it excuses us from the harder and more important task, thinking.
30
In fact, I argue that many students would be better off taking zero notes during lecture
31
and forcing themselves to pay attention instead.
32
But chances are you don't want to do that.
33
And fair, you probably should write something down during lecture.
34
So let me tell you a better way to take notes.
35
Instead of transcribing, which is writing everything down verbatim, focus on translating, which is writing things down in your own words.
36
As your professor speaks, avoid the urge to continuously write.
37
Instead, I want you to take notes in chunks.
38
Focus on your professor's words for 10 to 20 seconds, let it digest, and then write the main points in your own words.
39
If you've never taken notes like this before, it's going to feel uncomfortable because it'll feel like you're glossing over the important stuff.
40
The diagrams, the facts, the dates, the events.
41
But the truth is you can revisit all these specific minor details on your own time.
42
What you will not have access to later, however, is your professors and the overarching themes and ideas they want to convey.
43
In fact, these are often the ideas your professor might communicate on the spot and in the moment.
44
They might not be available in a textbook or some external resource.
45
Here's another way to think about it.
46
Learning is like pottery.
47
You focus on the overall shape and structure first
48
and then once you have that in place you can go in
49
and focus on the minor details and patterns to bring your masterpiece to life.
50
Knowledge works similarly.
51
Instead of going right into the little details you need to create the structure first
52
and this is often through the key themes and messages and ideas.
53
And then once you have a sense of what you're learning
54
and why you're learning it then you can drill down with all the minor details to refine your understanding.
55
All this comes back to the one lesson that I preach on this channel over and over again.
56
Discomfort is a byproduct of learning.
57
Actively engaging with your professor's words instead of passively copying everything down is hard and most students won't want to do that.
58
But you can either actively engage during lecture
59
and trim down your study time outside of class or you can passively engage and drastically extend your study sessions.
60
Mistake number two, obsessing over form.
61
Now what do I mean by By form, I'm referring to the aesthetic and the format of your notes.
62
Now, I don't mean to sound like a hater when I'm saying this, but aesthetically pleasing notes are very overrated.
63
If you want to decorate your notes and make them look pretty outside of class, please by all means do so and don't let me stop you.
64
But do not obsess over the aesthetic while you're in lecture, for two reasons.
65
First, the more you focus on the aesthetic, the less you focus on the actual lecture.
66
Embellishing your notes just gives you a false sense of productivity.
67
And second, you'll be in a constant state of panic trying to keep up with your professor.
68
And so again, we run into this issue where you're not actively engaging with the lecture content.
69
Okay, now let's talk about the format of your notes.
70
Some of the smartest students I know obsess over the format, and rightfully so.
71
They want to make sure that their notes are neat and organized to maximize their learning.
72
But my advice, don't overthink it.
73
Choose a format that works for you and run with it.
74
For example, if you don't like Cornell notes, don't use Cornell notes because some academic guru told you that they were effective.
75
Which they are by the way, but I totally understand why you might not be a fan of them.
76
Again, what matters more is the process of note-taking itself.
77
For example, are you actively engaging?
78
Are you processing ideas in your own words?
79
Are you focusing on the key themes and messages?
80
That's what matters more.
81
But I would be remiss if I didn't at least tell you what the different note-taking formats are.
82
So let's run through them quickly.
83
Again, if any of these resonate with you, great.
84
If not, keep doing you.
85
First, we have the good old outline method.
86
And this is the note-taking method that carried me throughout high school and college.
87
And the premise is pretty simple.
88
Organize information hierarchically.
89
Hierarchically?
90
Is that how you say that?
91
Use bullets to put main topics at the top, followed by subtopics underneath.
92
I prefer this format because it gives me the most space to work with, which isn't necessarily the case with the second format, Cornell Notes.
93
So for Cornell Notes, you want to divide your page into three sections.
94
A narrow left column for cues and questions, a wider right column for the notes themselves, and then a section at the bottom for summaries.
95
A benefit of this structure is that it forces active engagement with the lecture material, but a drawback is that it takes a lot more time.
96
After class or maybe even during class, you're going to have to remember to fill out that summary section for every single page.
97
Now if you're not a fan of writing summaries, then you might be a fan of this third format, the box method.
98
Now I'll admit this one is a bit unusual and I've never used it myself, but the idea is simple.
99
Group similar notes together and box them.
100
This can provide clear visual separation between distinct ideas, which can make studying a lot easier.
101
But my favorite note-taking format, at least the one to study with, are mind maps.
102
Mind maps are great because they reflect the interconnected nature of knowledge.
103
You have a central idea in the middle, and then you have related ideas branching off.
104
And then you can integrate distinct colors with separate areas of the mind map to help with memory retention.
105
But I know what you're wondering.
106
Gohard, didn't you say you used the outline method during school and not mind maps?
107
That's correct.
108
I used the outline method to take notes during class, but I used mind maps to study outside of class.
109
Mind maps can get very messy if you're using them during lecture, because you might not know when to split a branch into a sub-branch or when to use different colors.
110
That's why I think that mind maps are instead useful when you're familiar with the concept and understand the surrounding landscape.
111
Once you've acquired knowledge, you can then use a mind map to make sense of it and see how everything fits together.
112
You know what else should fit together?
113
Your study tools, which is why I want to show you something cool that Opera is doing.
114
They've partnered with Spotify to reimagine the way we listen to music while working.
115
And it gets even better.
116
Right now, Opera is offering three months of Spotify Premium for free.
117
That means you can listen without ads, download your music to listen anytime, anywhere, and organize your playlist to listen in whatever order you want.
118
You can claim your free trial by downloading the Opera browser and heading to the Opera Player sidebar.
119
Just note that this offer varies by country.
120
Now let me show you Opera in action, especially the video pop-out feature.
121
You can detach the video you're watching as so and place anywhere on your screen keeping it on top of other windows.
122
This is super helpful for those who love to watch while they browse but don't want to keep switching between tabs.
123
But what I really love is how customizable Opera is.
124
Watch this, I can set a theme like Midsommar, adjust the colors, add some subtle sound effects, and create the perfect environment for focusing.
125
Head to the link in my description to download Opera today and claim your free Spotify premium offer.
126
And now back to the video.
127
Mistake number three, ignoring your inner monologue.
128
So you know that voice inside your head during lecture, the one that's like, oh wait, this doesn't make any sense, or wait, how does that work?
129
Capture these thoughts in your notes.
130
Doing so is a great way to reflect on the material and to make your notes much more memorable.
131
For example, as I'm reading a book, I will annotate my exact thoughts in the margins.
132
If I find something funny, I will write down lol, or if I find something weird, I'll say WTF followed by an explanation.
133
Or sometimes if we're talking about a person that reminds me of someone that I know, or if we're talking about an event that reminds me of something that I've experienced, I will also note that down.
134
The more personal you can make your notes and connect these distinct concepts to your own lived experiences, the easier it's going to be to retain that information.
135
The most important type of annotation though, in my opinion, is the question mark.
136
If something confuses you, anything confuses you during lecture, even for just a moment, write down a question mark in the margin.
137
And in the moment, not later, not via email, not after class, raise your hand and ask for clarification.
138
Because I promise you, the ideas that you're telling yourself you'll revisit on your own time, you won't.
139
You will probably forget about it as soon as lecture ends.
140
And also, over the course of the semester, you'll encounter more material than you can possibly imagine.
141
And you will not have time to go back through everything and see which parts confused you.
142
Those question marks will be your indicators, and they will guide your study sessions.
143
So this way you can skip over these self-explanatory concepts and double down on what confuses you.
144
Mistake number four, failing to contextualize.
145
Knowledge doesn't exist in isolation.
146
When you learn something new, it's probably connected to something you've learned previously or it's related to an adjacent topic in a different class.
147
Your knowledge exists in the shape of a tree.
148
In other words, it looks kind of like a mind map.
149
When you take notes on a new topic, you have to embed it in your knowledge network.
150
In other words, you have to take this new piece of information and connect it to an old piece of information.
151
If you fail to establish these connections, your new knowledge will exist in isolation and slowly wither away over time.
152
But what does this process look like?
153
How do you actually create these connections and contextualize your knowledge?
154
Well, I have three methods for you.
155
Method number one is to include callbacks.
156
If you're taking notes on a topic that feels familiar, say so in your notes.
157
Literally write down something like this reminds me of the theorems we learned last week
158
or this reminds me of reaction rates in chemistry.
159
You can embed these callbacks into your notes as you're taking them or you can add them to the margins after class.
160
Now an even stronger way to contextualize your knowledge is method number two, draw comparisons.
161
Callbacks are great but they're simple.
162
You're creating a connection without exploring the basis for that connection.
163
To further solidify your knowledge, include a callback followed by a point of similarity or a point of differentiation.
164
For example, let's say you're taking notes on photosynthesis.
165
A callback might be, this builds on our study of cellular respiration.
166
Then a point of similarity might be, both processes involve energy conversion.
167
And then if you want to take it even further, a point of differentiation might be photosynthesis stores energy in glucose, whereas cellular respiration releases it.
168
Now you don't have to do this with all your notes all the time, but it's an especially useful exercise if you're studying for an exam and want to make sense of different concepts.
169
Okay, and then method number three, map it out.
170
As I said earlier, mind maps are a great study tool.
171
In addition to taking notes during class, I also recommend that you have a mind map that you build out over the course of a semester or a unit.
172
After each lecture, come back to this mind map and see
173
if you can find a place to fit in these new concepts that you've just learned.
174
The more connections you can draw between these new concepts and the existing topics on your mind map, the better off you're going to be.
175
All right, and then mistake number five.
176
This is perhaps one of the biggest mistakes students make when taking notes.
177
Doing a single pass.
178
Let me explain.
179
No student is going to take perfect notes on the first go.
180
But what do most students do?
181
They take their notes, they close their notebooks, and they don't revisit them until exam time, or better yet, just never at all.
182
Here's what I think you should do instead.
183
After you finish taking your notes, great, put them away and go about your day.
184
But after 24 hours, or even the same night, I want you to revisit what you wrote down.
185
What you'll notice is that some of the stuff might not make sense to you, or some of the stuff you might want to flesh out even further.
186
This is the exercise and these are the realizations that separate decent students from phenomenal students because it's uncomfortable.
187
Taking notes is the easy part.
188
Using your notes to test, challenge, and solidify your understanding is the harder and the more important part in this whole process.
189
So as you're taking notes, consider leaving gaps every few lines so you have space to come back and refine your thoughts.
190
You'll want to revisit your notes shortly after you've taken them, maybe even the night of, and then you'll want to revisit them three days later and then five days later and two weeks later and so on.
191
This of course is the principle of spaced repetition, which I'm sure every study tuber on this platform has talked about.
192
The idea is to revisit your notes at increasing intervals to prevent the knowledge from decaying.
193
Use these blank lines to elaborate on any points or to clarify confusing details, and at the same time quiz yourself as you're going through your notes.
194
Rereading your notes is a bit overrated.
195
You also want to actively quiz yourself as you're doing so.
196
So review a chunk, cover it up with a piece of paper, and then try to recite the main points in your own words.
197
Better yet, take your notes and pretend you're teaching that material to someone else.
198
This of course is the Feynman technique which I've talked about in previous videos, and this study method is one I lived by, especially for my social studies courses.
199
The overarching idea here is that your notes shouldn't just be some stale resource that you create once and then abandon.
200
Rather, your notes should be a resource that you revisit, review, and refine over the course of a semester.
201
Y'all, that does it for today's video.
202
If you have a moment, please take a minute or two to leave a meaningful comment and let me know what resonated most with you.
203
And also, if you want to excel in school and organize everything you have going on, check out my Notion template which is linked in the description of this video.
204
Y'all, best of luck this school year, I hope 2025 is treating you right, and I'll see you again next week.
Download App
AI scoring for every sentence you speak
TRENDING
Popular
Context & Background
In the video titled "How to Take Notes Like the Top 1% of Students," the speaker emphasizes the importance of effective note-taking techniques. Many students fall into the trap of transcribing lectures instead of processing the information meaningfully. This video highlights the need for students to shift from merely writing down what they hear to genuinely understanding the material presented. The speaker illustrates that real learning comes from engaging with the content rather than mechanically copying it down.
Top 5 Phrases for Daily Communication
- “Could you repeat that?” – A polite way to ask for clarification.
- “Please stop that!” – An effective phrase to request someone to cease an action.
- “I know the feeling.” – A statement of empathy and understanding.
- “Thank you.” – A simple expression of gratitude.
- “That gives us a false sense of progress.” – An insightful observation on common misconceptions about learning.
Step-by-step Shadowing Guide
To enhance your English learning using the shadowing technique with this video, follow these steps:
- Select Important Segments: Focus on key points where the speaker discusses note-taking strategies. These segments provide valuable insights into effective communication and comprehension.
- Engage with the Content: As you watch, pause the video after significant phrases. Mimic the speaker’s pronunciation, intonation, and pacing to improve your English pronunciation. Utilizing the shadow speech technique helps solidify your grasp on spoken English.
- Take Notes in Your Own Words: Rather than transcribing, concentrate on summarizing what you’ve learned from the speaker. This approach reinforces your understanding and retention of the subject.
- Practice Regularly: Make shadowing a regular part of your study routine. Use this shadowing site to discover more videos that suit your level and interest, allowing you to continue improving your English skills.
- Reflect on Your Learning: After practicing, take time to think about what you've learned. Consider how the speaker's ideas can be applied in your daily communication, enhancing your conversational skills.
By actively engaging with the content and utilizing these strategies, you can significantly improve your English speaking and comprehension. Remember, the goal is to learn English with YouTube as a dynamic tool in your language journey. Embrace this method and watch as your skills develop!
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.
☕ Buy us a coffee
ShadowingEnglish remains 100% free thanks to your support. Server and AI costs are high — your coffee keeps us going! 🙏