Does anyone here take notes without using pen and paper? Do any of you solely rely on software for learning?
If so, how is it? I feel that I retain more when I actually have to write it down, but fuck it takes so long.
Also, general note taking tips n tricks
I ask because after this exam, I'm going through and reviewing everything before the final, and was going to rewrite my notes while I'm at (for a couple reasons, one being that they were formatted horrendously, and two because I need the review), so before doing so I just wanted a general consensus on methodologies for maximum anti-brainlet capabilities
I first read through and make sure I understand all the material.
Then when I take notes I look through the problem sheets/exam papers and see which bits are actually used and are necessary to solve the problems.
I note down the main principles necessary to understand the material then, the specific steps needed for the problems, equations that may be necessary and any thought processes that were needed to understand the theory. I always try to write in a succinct and clear manner and avoid all the "boilerplate" that goes around an explanation of a theory (usually this means 10 pages in a book ends as a page or so of notes).
After that I just use my notes and don't touch the books/lectures anymore unless I find a bit I missed.
Interesting, I hadn't considered that before. Thank you!
I take my notes with pen/pencil + notebook.
Date and Title each lecture.
get a bunch of cheapo composition books for gross notes/scratch work.
at the end of each week, compile all your notes from these books into a small master notebook that you carry with you everywhere. i mean EVERYWHERE.
whenever you have 5 minutes in line somewhere or you are on the toilet or something, read a page or 2. spread this out over the course of a day and you can get like 2-3 hours of study time without ever feeling like you sat down to study.
efficient, effective, and has given me loads more free time.
Do you use pen/pencil and paper for your notes, or software?
There have been many times when I'm on break at work, or something similar, and I'd wished I had my notebook with me to study. Thanks for the advice, will do.
I use a lot of software for my course but not to take notes. It's a waste of time imo if you're taking maths notes/drawing graphs etc on a computer when it's so much easier to do them by hand. All my notes are quite regular in terms of style: black pen on A4 lined paper that is easy to tear out.
Imo pencils/coloured pens are a gimmick and I don't use them in the exams anyway. This way if I screw up badly or mess up the organisation of a page I can just redo it.
I keep everything organised with paper clips, staples and soft cover folders.
Ok. Interested to know if anyone here actually uses software for notes. I feel I'd fall into the trap of copying and pasting, not learning, but idk. Just curious
Here's how I study for exams, if you do this you're pretty much guaranteed to do well
1- go over my own notes or the teacher's notes to make sure I understand the concepts
2-take note of anything I'm not sure of and review that
3-then I take note of everything that's important and that you should remember for the test (formulas etc). I keep this with me to memorize stuff if needed
4-go over past finals/midterms (if available) and try to notice what kind of problems will be asked
5-practice problems until you're good
I wouldn't use software for math/physics etc notes. I just prefer handwriting my notes during class and if necessary I'll rewrite them on the computer later.
During term:
>take disgusting notes during lectures from the blackboard and whatever the lecturer says that I think is useful (this allows me to pay full attention to the lecture)
>rewrite in neat when I get home (this forces me to review the lecture, and since I paid full attention I can recall everything clearly)
During exam time:
>write down revision notes disgustingly
>LaTeX at the end from memory and check against revision notes
The LaTeXing makes reviewing easier since it's much less messy and takes less effort to look through (compared to messy revision notes).
I've actually been giving OneNote a shot, but I'm not sure if I'll stick with it or not. It's nice because it saves to a cloud which I can access with my iphone, and as notetaking software goes, it's actually pretty easy and intuitive to use. But at the end of the day, it just feels too cumbersome to sit with my laptop on one knee and my textbook on the other.
Can't type everything
Don't like having to look through notebook
Why not just write stuff down on piece of paper, then take a picture of it with your phone, and sort it into a folder, so you can study later, or while in your free time. Its much easier to look at your phone in public rather than a computer or notebook.
Funny, I use OneNote for a daily planner. Love it, btw. I was considering using it like that, but was unsure how my memory retention might suffer if I' m not physically writing it down.
Personally, I don't really notice much difference there. As long as I'm putting things in my own words, the effect is about the same.
here's how you do it, engineer here
>Take notes during the lessons
>At home: read the book WHILE he's teaching
power gap: you now have 1 month to study
>read again the book, this time UNDERLINE
>read the book again, this time take passages and basically: make notes from the book
>read the book again, this time copy only exercises/graphs, things that you should be able to replicate
while you do this, make sure to MARK EVERYTHING YOU DON'T KNOW
for example, you keep forgetting something, write "what causes X?"
or, you realize that you didn't remember something? a graph? write "write graph Y"
powergap: 2 weeks before the test:
>you should now have at least 30-50 questions, use any flashcard software to learn them
good job, you'll get the best score ever
genius here, that seems excessive.
can't you just learn off the teachers notes and reference the text when things are unclear, and finally practice a few problems and leave it at that?
sometimes i just record the lectures and listen to them again to study.
if its math just learn the math from any source and then find out which problems your teacher tends to emphasize and learn those better.
in the end its just easiest to wing it during the test and figure it out as i go.
I'm trying to get in touch with Docear. You should check it out, too.
I was exaggerating,
when I study without going to the lessons basically I read the book 2 times, the third is just so that I can write notes about it. Then I basically know everything, but I need to repeat exercises/graphs, and so I use the flashcard.
When I actually go to the lessons I take notes at an high speed, and I don't need books (or I guess for exercises).
Also, we are talking about obtaining the maximum.
There are a few guys in my program who take all their notes on a tablet. Seems to work well for them, but most of them are also really smart people.
(Former math major's perspective):
I usually never read the book all the way through. I figure that when I do the homework, I usually go through enough of the book that I probably have enough relevant knowledge to do whatever.
My exam prep is usually a couple hours the night before thumbing though making sure I remember the theorems and maybe a few important proofs. It's probably different for engineers, but I figure that if I don't already know how to do the proofs at that point, I'm screwed anyway so I may as well just enjoy a relaxed night (I've never gotten below a B+ in a class for my major, but I have failed a few final exams).
I prepared in essentially the same way when I took O-chem. I studied by just writing out all the mechanisms the night before. I got an A both semesters I took it.
I have Asian-tier memory skills (like, almost perfect recall of lectures that I had up to 6-8 months ago), so I don't think it's necessarily the best idea for people to study in the way that I do.
Taking notes kind of depends on how you learn. Without fully getting into the meme of "learning styles", I've found that I remember stuff best when I've written it down. I recall equations, problems, even proofs by seeing it in my head as if it was written out on a sheet of paper.
That's just me though, you can't generalize based off of one case.
because not everyone is an anime autist
How on Earth do you even do that? I mean, I'm a low motivation, low willpower piece of shit, but still. I have 35 hours of lectures/week, but because of some gaps in my schedule, I spend 39 hours at uni every week. I live 1 hour away from uni (not that uncommon among my peers), meaning I lose an additional 10 hours weekly. 1 week is 168 hours, I spend 56 of that sleeping, and 49 hours are lost because of the reasons I've already mentioned, so I am left with 63 hours to study, which seems a lot, but I still have to eat, sleep, other random tasks that come out of nowhere, and time is also lost due to fragmentation (like I have 2 hours in the morning, so I start reading the book, but then I have to go to class, and when I continue reading in the afternoon, I have to recall what I've read in the morning). It is also a problem that my schedule is asymmetric, menaing I'm at uni till 8 pm on mondays and tuesdays. I'm sure others feel this way too while reading these posts.
Are you me?