This study was designed to provide a description of the actual note-taking practices of students within a representative tertiary education institution. Despite the fact that such establishments rely heavily upon the lecture as a teaching method, relatively little is known of the efficiency, or otherwise of the student note-taking which almost invariably accompanies the lecture method. Even less is known about the structure ot such notes, and its effect upon subsequent learning from the notes. A possible reason for this gap in our knowledge is suggested by Lawrence when he notes that educational researchers have tended to follow the research models of the physical sciences rather than the more appropriate model of the biological sciences. These latter sciences require especially in the early phases of research, "extensive, systematic (even although tedious) data gathering and classification, and the search for predictable relationships and interactions between major features of the environment and the plant or organism".