It is extremely important for an individual to be able to take effective notes from the information that he or she learns during a lecture so that individual can review that information at a later time. However, there may be times that an individual does not necessarily need to work as hard to take notes as he or she normally would. This is because, in some situations, professors may supply the individual with handouts, outlines, and other similar materials that the individual can use to supplement or lead his or her note taking. In fact, professors will often hand out these materials when the lecture is covering a subject that is extremely difficult to understand or that has a lot of information that needs to be covered. Each of these materials will either help the individual identify key information that he or she should note about a particular subject or provide the individual with an outline or in-depth series of notes related to the topic that is being covered. It is important to note that having these study aids available does not necessarily mean that the individual should refrain from taking any notes, but rather that the professor has created a pre-made sheet that the individual can use as an aid in his or her note taking and studying in general. These aids usually consist of handouts that can be split into two groups based on the specific purpose of the handouts, which includes handouts that help lead the individual's note taking and handouts that provide the individual with the most important notes that he or she needs for a particular topic. These two groups are usually referred to as guided lecture notes and complete lecture notes.