How to study from lecture slides without just rereading them

The short answer

To study from lecture slides, don't read them over and over. Use them as a skeleton. After each lecture, add what the lecturer said that isn't on the slide. Then rewrite each slide title as a question, cover the slide, and answer from memory. Finally, merge the slides with your own notes so you revise from one place.

The rest of this post walks through each step with an example, and explains why it works better than flipping through the deck the night before.

Why rereading slides isn't enough

Slides are written to support a talk. They hold the headings, the diagrams and a few bullet points. The reasons, examples and warnings ("this comes up every year") usually live in what the lecturer says. If you only study the slides, you study the outline and skip the explanation.

Rereading also has a weak track record. A large review of study techniques rated rereading and highlighting as low utility, and practice testing as high utility (Dunlosky et al., 2013). Slides make rereading very easy, which is exactly the problem.

Having the slides does help in one way. In a study of slide handouts, students who had them during the lecture took fewer notes, and the authors linked having handouts to a number of benefits, including better final-test performance in their second experiment (Marsh & Sink, 2010). The useful reading of that result: if the slides already hold the bullet points, you don't need to copy them. Spend your attention on what's being said.

Step 1: Annotate the slides with what was said

Get the slides before or right after the lecture. Print them a few to a page with space beside them, or open them in an app that lets you write on them. The University of York's note-taking guide suggests exactly this: writing your own notes directly onto a copy of the slides (University of York Library).

During or soon after the lecture, add:

• The explanation behind each bullet. Why is it true, and how does it connect to the previous slide?
• Examples the lecturer gave out loud.
• Anything they stressed, repeated or said would be examined.
• What a graph or diagram is showing, in one sentence of your own.
• Questions you had and didn't get to ask.

Say a cardiovascular physiology slide reads "Blood pressure: systolic / diastolic (mmHg)". The slide doesn't say what the numbers mean. Your annotation might read: "Systolic is the pressure when the ventricles contract, diastolic when they relax. Measured with a cuff. She said to know the difference for the exam." That last line is the kind of thing slides never contain.

Step 2: Rewrite each slide title as a question

Slide titles are labels: "Cardiac cycle", "Heart valves", "Pulmonary circuit". Turn each one into a question the slide answers. The University of Arizona College of Nursing's academic success coaches recommend this: read through the slides, turn each one into a question, and write it above the slide. You can then cover the page and slide a sheet down to quiz yourself (University of Arizona College of Nursing).

Some examples:

• "Heart valves" becomes "Which valves keep blood flowing one way through the heart, and when does each one close?"
• "Pulmonary circuit" becomes "How does the pulmonary circuit differ from the systemic circuit?"
• "Blood pressure" becomes "What do the two numbers in a blood pressure reading measure?"

Aim for questions that ask you to explain or compare, not just name. They're harder, and harder is the point.

Step 3: Quiz yourself before you look

Now study by answering the questions with the slide covered. Write or say your answer, then uncover and check it against both the slide and your annotations. This is retrieval practice, and it's the high-utility technique from the review above (Dunlosky et al., 2013).

1. 1Cover the slide and read the question.
2. 2Answer from memory, even if it's only half right.
3. 3Uncover and compare. Mark what you missed.
4. 4Put a dot next to questions you got wrong, and start there next session.

For more ways to quiz yourself, see how to study from your own notes before an exam.

Step 4: Merge slides and notes into one place

Most students end up with two versions of every lecture: the slide deck and a separate page of notes. When you revise, you flip between them and lose time. Merge them once, early, so revision has a single source.

A simple way to merge

1. 1Keep one note per lecture, named the same way each time, for example "PHYS 201, Week 4, Cardiac cycle".
2. 2At the top, list the slide-title questions from step 2.
3. 3Under each question, paste or summarise the slide content, then add your annotations and anything from the reading.
4. 4Mark the source of each addition ("slide 12", "textbook p. 140", "said in lecture") so you can check it later.

The University of Arizona tip sheet adds a small habit worth copying: use one ink colour for lecture notes and another for anything you add from the textbook, with the page number (University of Arizona College of Nursing).

Common mistakes with slides

• Copying the slide word for word. It's already written. Write what isn't.
• Studying only the slides. If a topic was explained out loud, the explanation is what you'll be asked about.
• Leaving the merging until exam week. By then you won't remember what the lecturer said.
• Highlighting the printout. It feels productive and does little on its own.

Where an AI notes app can help

Once your slides and notes are merged, an AI tool can help you check yourself, as long as you answer first. With Lumyo, you can dictate your annotations right after a lecture, and each note gets a summary and a category automatically. When you revise, you choose the notes for one course and ask a question. The answer cites the notes it used, and tapping a source opens the exact line, so you can compare it with what you remembered.