Read And Take Notes Like A PhD. SOOO Important! — Transcript

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1. 0:00It amazes me that 84% of students say
2. 0:03that the way they learn and understand
3. 0:05things is just by reading and that is
4. 0:07the most ineffective way and you're
5. 0:09probably doing it wrong. So, in this
6. 0:11video I'm going to share with you how to
7. 0:12read and take notes like a PhD students
8. 0:15so you can build one of the most
9. 0:16essential skills that will serve you
10. 0:18throughout your life and this is how you
11. 0:20do it. The first thing you got to do is
12. 0:22get yourself a little bit of a cheeky
13. 0:23paper to read. It can be printed off, it
14. 0:26can be on a tablet, it can be on a
15. 0:27computer, it doesn't matter. You just
16. 0:29need to access the full text and be able
17. 0:31to write somewhere about it and you'll
18. 0:33see why that's so important in a minute.
19. 0:35But at the moment and throughout my
20. 0:37entire PhD I loved printing off full
21. 0:40papers and it's important that it's
22. 0:42one-sided and I'll show you that why
23. 0:44that reason is in a minute. But
24. 0:46ultimately I love printing it off and
25. 0:48writing down things on the paper. And
26. 0:51before you even start reading a paper,
27. 0:54you need to ask yourself why is it
28. 0:57important? So here there was this study
29. 0:59which found that um asking why questions
30. 1:02before you start reading something is
31. 1:04very important. It's setting an
32. 1:05intention of what you want to get out of
33. 1:08it. So, you could have what is this
34. 1:10paper's one claim? What evidence would
35. 1:12actually convince me and how does it
36. 1:14connect to what I already know? Now,
37. 1:16don't highlight it, write stuff down.
38. 1:19This is one of the most important things
39. 1:20of this video. Start writing, start
40. 1:23encoding it into your mind, start
41. 1:25generating your own thoughts about these
42. 1:28papers and it will serve you into the
43. 1:30future and you'll see why towards the
44. 1:32end of this video. So, um here I've got
45. 1:35organic photovoltaic devices based on
46. 1:37novel so I'm approaching this paper
47. 1:40trying to understand what novel acceptor
48. 1:42material graphene is. So, this is
49. 1:45important. So the question is what is
50. 1:48graphene and I'll actually write it at
51. 1:50the very top and then we've got
52. 1:52photovoltaic devices. So I want to know
53. 1:54what are the efficiencies? So what are
54. 1:57the efficiencies? And I'm also asking
55. 1:59myself, what would convince me? So, I
56. 2:01want to see IV tables, I want to see
57. 2:04actual devices, I want to see
58. 2:06percentages. And just by noting down
59. 2:08these intentions, it'll help frame what
60. 2:11you write about, what you notice, and
61. 2:13why you're reading it. In the early
62. 2:14stages of your PhD, it could just be,
63. 2:17"I'm reading cuz this is interesting."
64. 2:18It's absolutely fine. Don't overthink
65. 2:20it. But as you're getting more into your
66. 2:22PhD, maybe I'm interested not in um the
67. 2:25graphene, but maybe I'm interested in
68. 2:27novel acceptor materials and their
69. 2:29synthesis. Maybe I'm looking at a
70. 2:31synthesis materials paper. And so, that
71. 2:33will change how you approach each
72. 2:35individual paper. But early on, broad is
73. 2:37absolutely fine. You don't need to
74. 2:39overthink it too much. But just have a
75. 2:40little bit of a think, 30 seconds where
76. 2:42you go, "Okay, based on this paper and
77. 2:45what I know about it right now, what do
78. 2:47I actually want to find out about it?
79. 2:49What about the title or the abstract
80. 2:52actually has interested me about this
81. 2:55paper." And then you can go a little bit
82. 2:56deeper and further. So, that's the most
83. 2:58important thing. Step one, step two is
84. 3:01very, very important. Let's look at
85. 3:03that. So, step two is write in your own
86. 3:06words and never copy when you're taking
87. 3:08notes about this paper. So, this study
88. 3:10found that verbatim note takers did
89. 3:13worse on conceptual questions and
90. 3:15paraphrasing forces deeper processing
91. 3:17and copying doesn't. So, as you're
92. 3:20reading this, you need to synthesize it
93. 3:22into your own words. So, as I'm reading
94. 3:25it, I write in either the edges of the
95. 3:27page if there's enough space, or I
96. 3:29literally just flip it over and I start
97. 3:31writing notes about what I've just read.
98. 3:34So, for example, here on the slides,
99. 3:36we've got the copy, blah blah blah. And
100. 3:38you can see the note could be about 120
101. 3:41students, only the groups who went back
102. 3:42and revised their notes improved. You
103. 3:44can see that's very, very different to
104. 3:46this language. In the review condition
105. 3:48exhibited significantly elevated free
106. 3:51blah disgusting if you ask me. So, we
107. 3:55got to turn it into how you internalize
108. 3:58this
109. 3:59information you're reading. So, let's
110. 4:01just take an example here. This is
111. 4:04however some unfavorable factors such as
112. 4:06insolubility, impurities, and bundling
113. 4:08structure have greatly hindered the
114. 4:10device performance of carbon nanotubes.
115. 4:12So, here I may put a little thing like
116. 4:14this and I may turn the Oh, my turning
117. 4:16the page. Who would have thought? And
118. 4:18I'm going to say single-walled carbon
119. 4:20nanotubes have
120. 4:23bundling
121. 4:25and
122. 4:26say solubility issues. Okay, great. Now,
123. 4:30I've just encoded that into my own
124. 4:32language and it's a little note here. If
125. 4:34I want to put more, like I said, I can
126. 4:36turn it over and on the back of the
127. 4:38page, I'm like, "Okay, single-walled
128. 4:40carbon nanotubes have" and I will write
129. 4:43full sentences out in my own words based
130. 4:47on what I've just read. And so then I'll
131. 4:49go back to it and I'll carry on. One
132. 4:51atom thickness and large 2D planes lead
133. 4:54to large specific area and therefore
134. 4:56very large interfaces which can be
135. 4:58formed. Oh, great. I didn't know that
136. 5:00about graphene. So, here Oh, my god, I'm
137. 5:02turning the page again and I'm going to
138. 5:04write graphene has large
139. 5:08interfaces. And I'm starting to think,
140. 5:10"Hang on, that I know that large
141. 5:11interfaces between things means that the
142. 5:14electronic conductivity or the passing
143. 5:17of electrons between two overlapping
144. 5:19planes is going to be more efficient.
145. 5:21So, maybe here I'm going to put electron
146. 5:24transfer." Oh, my god, I'm starting to
147. 5:26use my own brain. Isn't that amazing?
148. 5:28I'm being facetious, but I think it is
149. 5:30important that we go through this
150. 5:32process and start thinking about the
151. 5:33things you know, what's overlapping, and
152. 5:35maybe put some questions as you're
153. 5:37reading. And this is what I would do for
154. 5:39the entire paper. Now, one of the most
155. 5:42important things I always go to and I
156. 5:44always if I'm scanning a paper, I look
157. 5:46at the figures as one of the first
158. 5:48things. Figures caption figures caption
159. 5:50cuz without the data in my field at
160. 5:51least, there's no point in actually sort
161. 5:53of like reading the paper. So, here you
162. 5:55can see I've got some material
163. 5:57properties. So, here I'm there's some
164. 5:58material wavelength UV vis. Okay, maybe
165. 6:01that's not important. Here's a little
166. 6:03bit of a schematic. Oh, this is now
167. 6:04where I'm starting to get interested.
168. 6:06Here's some actual data. And so, you can
169. 6:08see in the caption down here quite often
170. 6:10they give you the will take home
171. 6:12message. A good caption should have a
172. 6:14take home message at least um of what
173. 6:17the figures tell you. You can see here
174. 6:19right at the bottom, "Best performing
175. 6:21OPV performance was obtained from the
176. 6:23device with 5% graphene loading and 20
177. 6:26minutes annealing at 160°." So, I will
178. 6:28write that in my own words. So, down
179. 6:31here I will write, "Best device, 5%
180. 6:35graphene, and heating or annealing at
181. 6:39160°C."
182. 6:40There we are. I've just sort of like
183. 6:42done a little bit of encoding into my
184. 6:44own words and that's fine. So, there we
185. 6:46are. I will go through each individual
186. 6:48page and look at the figures, look at
187. 6:51the words, and start encoding it into my
188. 6:53own language, my own understanding. And
189. 6:56this next step is going to help you
190. 6:57remember so many awesome things about so
191. 7:00many awesome papers, and it looks like
192. 7:02this. And the next step supported by
193. 7:04studies looks like this. And this is
194. 7:06where you have to encode um note-taking
195. 7:09and create structured notes. So, after
196. 7:11you've kind of been through this paper,
197. 7:13right? And you've gone through it and
198. 7:14you've got all your notes in the corner
199. 7:15on the back. This is where you just take
200. 7:17a moment to think about what the overall
201. 7:20message of this paper is. And it's quite
202. 7:23good to have some form of structure when
203. 7:26you're doing that. So, here you can look
204. 7:28at the claim, evidence, limits, and then
205. 7:30link to anything else you know. So, here
206. 7:33I'm going to put claim. So, the claim is
207. 7:35that graphene is an awesome uh dopant or
208. 7:39an awesome addition to OPV devices for
209. 7:42all of these reasons. So, graphene is a
210. 7:45great addition. And then we've got
211. 7:48evidence. Well, they provide OPV device
212. 7:51efficiencies. Obviously, I would write
213. 7:53out full sentences, you know, like I
214. 7:55won't do this with a video cuz it'll be
215. 7:57really boring to watch me just write
216. 7:59here. So, claim this is evidence. Here
217. 8:01we've got limits. And so, the limits of
218. 8:03this are that they've only used up to a
219. 8:05certain percentage. Maybe it changes
220. 8:07either side of that. Limits are that
221. 8:09they only did one sort of graphene.
222. 8:11Those are the things that I'm interested
223. 8:13in. So, limits.
224. 8:14Let's have a look. So, only one type of
225. 8:18graphene, no functionalization.
226. 8:21And then link. What did it link to that
227. 8:24kind of like I was thinking about? So,
228. 8:27I was thinking about a paper that I read
229. 8:29about carbon nanotubes that you
230. 8:31that use like similar approaches, doping
231. 8:33and kneeling, doping and kneeling. And
232. 8:34then here I could say, all right, well,
233. 8:36carbon nanotubes also do blah blah blah.
234. 8:38And so, having a very simple structure
235. 8:41like this, a skeleton for each
236. 8:43individual note means that you're going
237. 8:45to have a claim, evidence, limits, and
238. 8:47link on all of those papers, right? And
239. 8:50that is the most important thing. Now,
240. 8:52for each individual paper, I highly
241. 8:54recommend that you just either keep the
242. 8:57first page and write this you know,
243. 9:00skeleton notes on the back in your own
244. 9:03words, obviously. Or you keep the full
245. 9:05thing, staple it together, and on the
246. 9:06back page you want to have this for each
247. 9:09individual paper. And if you don't like
248. 9:12it, cross it out, do it again. It
249. 9:13doesn't matter. You can, you know, make
250. 9:15it [clears throat] as messy, as
251. 9:16organized, as whatever you like. Some
252. 9:17people love really nice notes. As you
253. 9:19can see, I don't mind if it looks like a
254. 9:21spider crawled across the page as my mom
255. 9:23used to say. So,
256. 9:25this is a very important part. You keep
257. 9:27this. This is your own thoughts about
258. 9:30this paper after you've been through it.
259. 9:32And the next stage will actually help
260. 9:34you start to link together ideas, start
261. 9:36to link together all of the stuff you've
262. 9:38read about this paper and other papers
263. 9:40because it is so very, very important.
264. 9:43So, the next stage for reading and
265. 9:45taking notes like a PhD student is this:
266. 9:47review, recall, or retell. Now, this is
267. 9:51your understanding of the paper or this
268. 9:53is, at least, this these random
269. 9:55scrollings are your understanding of any
270. 9:57paper or any sort of like bit of
271. 9:58information that you've read. It does
272. 10:01not properly encode into your brain
273. 10:03until you've retrieved it or retold
274. 10:06someone or reviewed it. So, you can go
275. 10:08back through and uh look at this paper
276. 10:11at the end of the week. If you read it
277. 10:13on Monday, maybe on Fridays you get all
278. 10:15of the papers you've read and you just
279. 10:17look over and review the the bits you've
280. 10:20written. And if possible, you review it
281. 10:22blind. So, you look at this paper, okay,
282. 10:25organic blah blah, and you go, "What do
283. 10:26I remember about the structure?" So, the
284. 10:28claim was that blah blah blah. The
285. 10:31evidence that I think they support in
286. 10:32this paper and you have a little scan
287. 10:34through. Yeah, okay, that's what
288. 10:35happened. And we're sort of like
289. 10:36starting to reinforce your understanding
290. 10:39of that paper. And throughout the week
291. 10:41you've learned new things, you read
292. 10:42different things. You may have a spark
293. 10:44of inspiration which actually allows you
294. 10:46to connect things that you hadn't
295. 10:48connected before. And that is the true
296. 10:51power here. Now, this is what I
297. 10:53recommend you do. On a 20-minute Friday
298. 10:55review, just set a 20-minute timer. It
299. 10:57doesn't have to be like official or
300. 10:58anything, but lay out a week's evidence
301. 11:01page notes all over. So, I would get all
302. 11:03of my pages like this all over my desk.
303. 11:05If I've read five of them, great. If
304. 11:06I've read 20 of them, great. If I've
305. 11:07read two of them, great. Doesn't matter.
306. 11:09I've got them out in front of me and I'm
307. 11:11doing a Friday review. And you can do
308. 11:12this with other people in your uh
309. 11:14cohort, in your PhD cohort, your
310. 11:16research group. You can do it in your
311. 11:18office and say, "You know what? We're
312. 11:19going to have a Friday review, everyone.
313. 11:21Let's talk about the papers that we've
314. 11:23read cuz it's be important for all of
315. 11:25us." Um and yeah, this is where you
316. 11:27really reinforce that learning, that
317. 11:30understanding that you did earlier on
318. 11:33with the individual papers. So, retrieve
319. 11:35the evidence for each paper out loud
320. 11:37from memory, and then this is the really
321. 11:39important thing and I think where your
322. 11:41brain and your own individual lens that
323. 11:44you bring to each individual paper is so
324. 11:47so valuable. Then, this last bit, find
325. 11:49connections between papers. Is there a
326. 11:52same mechanism? Is there a different
327. 11:53population? Is there things? So, I would
328. 11:55be down here, and in this link section,
329. 11:58I could actually just put an arrow and
330. 12:00say, "Yeah, it's the Let's say it was
331. 12:02Stapleton
332. 12:05et al. and it was their 2012 paper about
333. 12:09carbon nanotubes and blah blah blah."
334. 12:11So, here we are starting to link
335. 12:13together ideas, and that is how you
336. 12:15start your creative juices.
337. 12:18I don't like that term at all. But,
338. 12:20that's
339. 12:21>> [laughter]
340. 12:21>> Oh, I feel ill. But, that's how you
341. 12:23start your creativity process when
342. 12:25you're learning about research, you're
343. 12:27coming up with your own ideas, you're
344. 12:28making connections, maybe connections no
345. 12:31one else has made. And as you do this
346. 12:33more and more, you'll start to get used
347. 12:36to the process, and that is how I
348. 12:39recommend that not only you encode the
349. 12:41information of your papers into your
350. 12:44brain, but you start regenerating that
351. 12:46knowledge, you start defending it, you
352. 12:48start trying to sort of like tell it in
353. 12:50your own words. And do you know what?
354. 12:51When I was a science communicator, I
355. 12:53remember I was trying to write these
356. 12:55perfect words, and the mentor I had was
357. 12:59amazing. And she said, "Tell me about
358. 13:02Tell me about it. Tell me about the
359. 13:03paper." And I was like, "Blah blah blah
360. 13:05blah blah." And she was like, "Yeah,
361. 13:05just write it like that." And I was
362. 13:07like, "Oh, okay. Yeah, I'll do that."
363. 13:09It's so simple. But, retelling it, being
364. 13:11forced to synthesize the words in your
365. 13:14own words, or synthesize the ideas in
366. 13:17your own words, is so very very
367. 13:19important, and don't underestimate that
368. 13:22action and that repetition, because this
369. 13:26is what no one ever tells you is that
370. 13:29these notes are not a record. They're
371. 13:31not here for someone else to go back to
372. 13:34and be like, "Oh, I should go back you
373. 13:36know like that they are for you. They
374. 13:38are a rehearsal. With each individual
375. 13:41paper that you are reading, you are
376. 13:43rehearsing coming up with ideas. You're
377. 13:46rehearsing defending some ideas,
378. 13:50connecting ideas. You're rehearsing
379. 13:52talking academically with other people
380. 13:55about ideas in papers. Whether it's this
381. 13:57paper, your paper, or otherwise, it is
382. 14:00not about remembering. It is about
383. 14:03rehearsing the academic process over and
384. 14:07over again until it becomes second
385. 14:08nature for you and uh it is going to
386. 14:12really help your career when you're able
387. 14:14to talk about things in your own words
388. 14:17clearly, succinctly, connect ideas, and
389. 14:20this is how you read and write and take
390. 14:23notes as a PhD student. And each step in
391. 14:26the system is not an act of just uh
392. 14:29retrieving information. It's a rehearsal
393. 14:32for the actual academic tasks that are
394. 14:34ahead of you. Don't try to skip any of
395. 14:37these steps because you'll be robbing
396. 14:38yourself of the really important uh
397. 14:42tools and processes that make you a
398. 14:45better academic. If you like this video,
399. 14:48go check out this one where I talk about
400. 14:49the research habits that you need to
401. 14:50build to make sure that your PhD and
402. 14:52your research career is incredibly
403. 14:54smooth and awesome. I think you'll love
404. 14:56it.