I always found that my notes were effectively write-only. The process of writing things down on paper helped me absorb the information, but beyond that I never

I always found that my notes were effectively write-only. The process of writing things down on paper helped me absorb the information, but beyond that I never really looked back at the notes. Generally I could find the information I needed in a better form somewhere else. If anything, the notes mainly helped me review broadly which topics were covered on which days. For math specifically, I always found that what helped me most was to come up with a general "shape" of how I used the paper when solving a problem of a particular type. Then I would end up with a visual that helped me know which bits of information I was missing and what I needed to do where to find the answer. It's different from the "draw a picture" thing, really more of a knolling[1] of the problem down on paper. If all the things are in their places, then the answer to the problem is straight-forward to come up with. Edit: Mise en place [2] might also be a good way to describe it. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Sachs_(artist)#Knolling https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Sachs_(artist)#Knolling [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mise_en_place https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mise_en_place