Did You Use a Laptop or Notebook to Take Notes?

[imschatz]

Originally Posted by javyn

Pen and paper. When I'd bring my laptop to class I'd end up just day trading all day.

Was all about "mind maps" when taking class notes.

I type 100 wpm, and write like a 7 year old marsupial, but still, taking notes by hand wins.
+1

I used to take my laptop to class. I played on facebook. Worst investment ever. My grades went from low 70's to high 80's after I ditched my laptop for "taking notes".

 

[javyn]

Originally Posted by Eason

Paper notes. I find that typing doesn't really help commit things to memory like writing. Plus, on a computer, it's much too easy to let your mind wander.

Also, all the people with laptops in class in my university were total melvins.

Yeah. I also don't understand what laptop note-takers do when the professor starts drawing diagrams and stuff.

I know you can do diagrams on the computer, but seriously, how does that work out? Seems to me like the note-taker would be fumbling around for the right software application to do the type of diagram/drawing he needs, and then what for input? Bust out the WACOM Graphire tablet and stylus? Please.

 

[impolyt_one]

this was my laptop in the beginning of college, it weighed like 7 lbs, and it cost something near $2000 at the time, so it wasn't something to tote everywhere:

I don't ever remember taking a computer to class, I would've been the only one typing away and people would've been browsing my 'thefacebook.com' over my shoulder the whole time.

 

[brimley]

I always took the test with pen and paper, so I took notes with pen and paper. Tap dat kinesthetic memory. YMMV.

 

[chabe]

Laptop for everything - all data in one place - easy.

 

[javyn]

Originally Posted by chabe

Laptop for everything - all data in one place - easy.
I was an econ major. I just couldn't see using a computer to draw a supply/demand schedule off the cuff when taking notes like that. Statistics and Econometrics would be even worse, I'd have been missing notes browsing through the character map looking for symbols. I'm sure today is different than when I was in college, even though I graduated in '05. It's probably a requirement now to have a laptop, and I hear most undergrad professors at my school don't even make students take notes, rather students must buy the notes from the bookstore in pdf form.

 

[zarathustra]

Originally Posted by brimley

I always took the test with pen and paper, so I took notes with pen and paper. Tap dat kinesthetic memory. YMMV.

plus one. When I took the bar, I rewrote my outlines at least 11tyseventy million times.

 

[ter1413]

paper....

 

[gort]

Depends on the class. I was a computer science major so a lot of classes having a laptop was tremendously helpful. Other classes a notepad was enough.

 

[DerekS]

I enjoy nice paper and nice pens. You will rarely see me without a pen and paper near

 

[ALFAMALE]

Originally Posted by NAMOR

Notebook. My typing speed back in college was not nearly as fast as it is now.


+1

 

[brimley]

Originally Posted by zarathustra

plus one. When I took the bar, I rewrote my outlines at least 11tyseventy million times.

My background is in science and math, but I also did the rewriting notes thing. There are plenty of formulas that I don't "know" (couldn't tell them to you) but I can sit down and write out.

 

[imatlas]

Originally Posted by javyn

Yeah. I also don't understand what laptop note-takers do when the professor starts drawing diagrams and stuff.

I know you can do diagrams on the computer, but seriously, how does that work out? Seems to me like the note-taker would be fumbling around for the right software application to do the type of diagram/drawing he needs, and then what for input? Bust out the WACOM Graphire tablet and stylus? Please.

Cameras work very well for that, especially now that they are completely ubiquitous.

 

[caxt]

Pad and pencil - for the aforementioned reasons.

Tried laptop once during summer semester: when I wasn't on the internet between topics, I couldn't remember the material as well.

 

[Bill Smith]

Old school for me, fountain pen with a paper notebook.