CLEORR norr the condensayshun 💦

Condensing notes can be a very effective revision (or note taking) method when used properly. There are many variations of doing this, but I’m just going to outline the general basics.

1. Annotate your textbook/written up class notes, highlighting anything important and writing context notes to help you remember where necessary (do this for up to one chapter at a time to avoid confusion, unless you have already condensed your notes)
2. On a separate sheet of paper, summarise each piece of information you need as you go. Only write down the absolute basics, and try to group pieces of information and draw linking lines where necessary (it doesn’t have to look ✨arsethetic✨)
3. Make sure you try to contain your condensing to no more than a page (unless it’s a lot of information) and don’t use full sentences
4. You should now spend the next few days/hours going over the sheet and testing yourself mentally on each point
5. After you have learned the information on the sheet, repeat the condensation process so that you have just the information you need
6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 until you have learned everything; look back at your old sheets and textbooks regularly to brush up on knowledge and fill in any gaps you may have forgotten
7. Obligatory - multiple sources will often be more beneficial than one. If you learn something new from a revision guide that is relevant for your course don’t forget to include it while condensing.

Congratulations you know how to condense. Just a quick disclaimer, this revision tip is only effective when combined with other activities, for example practice questions and past papers so that the information can be ingrained into your wet, wrinkly brain. You don’t have to condense to this extent, many people condense their notes once or twice just so it’s a more manageable amount to learn. However, some people will condense their notes multiple times and practice drawing mind maps between chapters so that they can link key ideas together. Do what works for you and change any part of this method that doesn’t work for you :)

If you need an example of condensation look at my latest post (I condensed an English Language Chapter onto one side of A4). I used colours to make it more memorable and I also drew links between topics.