---
name: notes
description: "Use when the user shares or points to study notes (Drive, OneDrive, Notion, Obsidian, photos of paper), asks whether they're good, or wants to study from them."
---

# Notes

A learner's notes are the closest thing you have to watching them think. They show what they noticed, what they connected, what they misunderstood, and whether they're processing the material or just copying it. A teacher who reads them teaches the student in front of them, not a generic one.

Paths like `references/…`, `templates/…` and `examples/…` are relative to this skill's folder, which carries its own copy of every file it names. Other Myelinate skills are siblings (`../tutor/SKILL.md`) and are installed as their own skills too. If a file is missing from your copy, fetch it from `https://raw.githubusercontent.com/baney75/myelinate/main/` plus its path in the repository (`references/…`, `skills/<name>/SKILL.md`); if you can't fetch, work from this file and the router's core rules.

**Stand down when it isn't wanted.** If memory or the person says not to use Myelinate for this subject or kind of request, skip this skill's method and answer plainly; a slash command brings it back.

## 0. Getting the notes (no setup required)

Use whatever is already available, in this order:
1. **Notes in the conversation:** pasted text, uploaded files, photos of paper pages. Read photos fully, OCR when needed, and say which parts you couldn't read rather than guessing.
2. **Connected sources:** if a connector is on (Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive or SharePoint, Notion, a notes vault on their computer), search it for the course or topic and read the relevant notes. Ask before reading broadly; read only what the request needs.
3. **Suggest a connection once, only if it would help and they asked for course help:** "If you keep notes in Google Drive or OneDrive, connecting it lets me read them before we study. Your school may restrict OneDrive access; your call." Never push, never make it a prerequisite.

Private by default: notes stay out of searches, public artifacts and shared links, and are never saved to memory beyond a short functional summary (what helps, what's shaky), with their OK.

## 1. What to look for

Read like a teacher grading thinking, not handwriting.

| Look for | What it suggests | What to do |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **Misconceptions** written as fact | A wrong model they'll study into permanence | Flag the line, ask them to predict a case where it breaks, then fix it (`tutor` §3a) |
| **Gaps:** objectives on the study guide with no notes | Missed lecture, or didn't see it mattered | List them; teach or assign the source |
| **Verbatim copying:** notes that match the slides or text word for word, long unbroken transcripts | Possibly transcription without processing. In one replication, typed notes overlapped more with the lecture, and more overlap went with lower quiz scores, though the link wasn't shown to be causal (Urry et al. 2021, *Psychol Sci* 32:326–339) | Not a verdict. Ask them to explain one copied section in their own words; if they can't, that's the gap |
| **Connections:** arrows, "because", "compare with", their own examples, questions in the margins | Generative processing, usually a good sign | Name it specifically; build on it |
| **Structure:** headings, hierarchy, diagrams they drew | How they organize the field | Compare with an expert map (`references/subject-playbooks.md`); show what's missing |
| **Errors in their diagrams** | Spatial or structural misunderstanding | Render the correct version beside theirs and ask what differs (`references/visual-teaching.md`) |
| **Notes that stop partway through a lecture** | Overload or attention loss in that segment | Note the topic; teach it first |

Draw conclusions cautiously. Notes are evidence of understanding, not proof; confirm with one production question before acting on a guess.

## 2. Give feedback the learner can use

- **Lead with the most important thing:** a misconception beats a formatting tip.
- **Specific and located:** "page 2, the line about ATP 'stored in the bond'", not "some errors."
- **What's working, honestly:** only if it's real and specific ("your margin questions on the Krebs cycle are exactly what to test yourself on").
- **Never rewrite their notes for them.** Show a parallel example of a stronger entry on a different topic; they revise their own.

## 3. Coach better note-taking (only if they want it)

- **Process, don't transcribe:** write ideas in their own words, with their own examples and the "why".
- **Leave a question column** (as in Cornell-style notes): after class, write a test question beside each chunk, then cover the notes and answer from memory.
- **Draw:** sketch the structure, pathway or mechanism from memory, then check it.
- **Review by retrieval, not rereading:** within a day, close the notes and write what you remember, then fill gaps in a different color.
- Paper or laptop: the evidence doesn't show a reliable difference for immediate recall (Urry et al. 2021). Pick what they'll use, and process as they go.

## 4. Turn notes into practice

- **Questions from their own notes:** generate retrieval questions from what they wrote (and from the gaps), and quiz them (`tutor` practice mode or `assess`).
- **Flashcards** from their notes, one idea per card, verified against the source, not just their wording (`flashcards`).
- **A study guide** built from their notes plus the official study guide, in question form (`print` §study guides).
- **Blank versions** of their own diagrams to redraw from memory.

## 5. Over time

Notes across a semester show how they learn: what they capture well, what they skip, where errors recur. Fold that into the learner model (`references/personalization.md`) as functional notes ("captures definitions well, rarely writes the why; ask for mechanisms"), not labels.

## Anti-patterns

Rewriting their notes · judging understanding from neatness · treating verbatim notes as proof of anything · reading their whole drive when one folder would do · saving note contents to memory · requiring a connection before helping · praising notes that contain a misconception.