Following the lessons of the forgetting curve, you should review your notes and write cues within twenty-four hours of a lecture.  The sooner you review your notes after a lecture, the more information you will remember as you write your cues.

Your cues should include questions and leading statements (e.g., define, describe, or explain) that you might find on a quiz or exam. Write a cue for every important fact or concept in your notes.  Your cues should prompt understanding or create connections between ideas.  Look for terms, key dates or formulas, names of people, important concepts, or other  information that might be on a quiz or test.   Your cues should prompt you to recall the information in your notes.  For instance, if you are listing the colors of the rainbow, you might write the questions, how many colors are in the rainbow, or what are the seven colors of the rainbow.   The very act of reading your notes and thinking about questions that point to key information will reinforce your memory of the lecture content.

When you have finished writing your cues, you will use your notes and cues for your on-going study and review.  By folding back the cues column, you will have a quizzing guide for the content of your notes. As you ask yourself the questions in the cues column, you will reinforce the central ideas you must learn from the lecture.