How to Be Active in Lectures
Lecture time should be learning time, but sometimes it can be challenging to know what’s important versus what is superfluous. Teaching styles vary from professor to professor and it’s imperative to know what to watch and listen for during lectures.
Here’s where active listening comes in! If you know what to listen for you can identify important indicators to focus your attention and studies on.
Three Things to Listen For During Lectures
- The more important the topic the more TIME will be spent on it. This can happen within a lecture or across multiple lectures.
- Some professors will use PAUSES—even dramatic ones—to summon your attention to what they’re about to say, teach, or discuss.
- If something is important it will be REPEATED. This can be within a lecture, between lectures, or even between the assigned reading and the lecture. You will NOT know if something is being repeated unless you heard it the first time or completed the assigned reading before class.
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