too late to be taking notes

Here's another scene from high school - let me push the 'Play' button:

It wasn't my habit to go to the school library just before a test but this time I did. I don't recall for what class it was, but I saw another student from that class, Rufino, sitting at a table. So I went up to see what he was doing. He was writing class material down on a piece of paper as if he was taking notes. And my first thought was, "Isn't it a bit late to be doing that? What good is it going to do you now?" So I asked him what he was doing, and he told me that writing things down helps him remember them. And I thought, that makes sense... now why didn't I think of that?