What do you use to take notes during class?

I’m currently looking for a laptop for note taking, I find that carrying a lot of binders with paper is quite cumbersome plus I can type a bit faster then write. But I’m wondering what people are using these days, during many lectures if I look around I will see 1 out of 4 people with a laptop. Maybe 1 or 2 people out of 100 will have a PDA with a mini keyboard, everyone else uses paper & pen.

Also don’t forget to explain exactly what you use and how your system of note taking is setup. For example do you have separate binders for each class, or do you have one big one. Do you use pens, pencils or crayons :p What type of laptop do you have and what specs does it have, which OS are you running and which program do you use for note taking, etc.

i prefer not to take notes at all

if it was something very difficult to remember then i'd use a laptop... *unless* there is things that involve diagrams / drawing... then a pen & paper is much easier

Paper & Pencil, since it's cumbersome getting engineering notes into a laptop. If Tablet PC's come down in price (to around $1000), thats the next kind of laptop im getting.

For me it really depends on the class.

For most of my classes I will just use paper and pen, however if there is a huge amount of note taking then I will bring my laptop with me. If the lecture notes are put online then I will defintley just bring a paper/pen.

Originally Posted by aaaaaa

i prefer not to take notes at all

if it was something very difficult to remember then i'd use a laptop... *unless* there is things that involve diagrams / drawing... then a pen & paper is much easier

No notes at all? I did that for POLS1000 but only because we had notes posted online. Otherwise if they don't repeat information you will miss so much content and end up doing bad on exams.

For drawing you could just use paint or photoshop and paste it in to your word documents, but yes it's easier with a pen. However I don't have any classes that really need anything like this since I'm a pols major.

laptop:
- i type faster than i write
- i can surf the net wirelessly if the class is boring

pen and paper:
- only used for diagrams, etc.

Note: i hate using MS One Note ... I prefer Word (easier for printing)

Pen and paper.. (well pencil actually)

I use the retro 80 page Hilroy coil notebooks. Light, easy to carry.. laptop/notebook note taking is overrated .. I only sometimes lugged mine for WiFi and watching movies or anime or dramas during class.

Pencil and Paper..... laptop is there for procrastinating or viewing powerpoint slides.

pen and paper for sure, I get those like 100 page notebooks and just have one for each class, so its like almost nothing to carry...even if you had all 5 classes in one day, which you wont, then you only gotta carry 5 little notebooks...

Laptops are alright for some classes but if you get into any math, science or eng classes it is just not worth it, to hard. If you really want a laptop to take notes i would HIGHLY recommend you look into tablet pcs, those things are sweet, If i had one I would use it to take notes since it is just ask good as using pencil and paper. But for a normal laptop, there are too many symbols, equations and little notes here and there to make it effective.

I think I will be sticking with the individual notebooks and pen/pencil, makes it really easy, keeps it all seperate and organized, SCREW BINDERS lol to big and bulky haha

Originally Posted by aaaaaa

i prefer not to take notes at all

You NEED to at least pretend you are taking notes. Most professors expect that; and unless you are truly a very bright student (i.e. with straight As, AND the professor agrees that you are bright; they may not go hand in hand, mind you), this (not taking notes) will leave him or her a bad impression.

Maybe this thread was a bad idea I’m getting second thoughts on getting a laptop in realizing various things like the fact that I can just use coil notebooks which are slim instead of binders for each class. Also battery time would suck and I couldn’t leave my laptop unguarded.

For any of those at U of T, there are sometimes very few laptop plugs in a classroom, so factor that in too.

I use pen and paper, like a small notebook, plus I record some lectures but only for the very hardest courses and/or courses where the lecture differs substantially from our assigned texts. And since I commute, I can listen to the lectures on my way home.

Cheers,

Jie

Pen and paper. I find it helps memorizing stuff too.

Consider the course you're taking. If you're doing any economics/business/etc. (I'm not majoring in any of that but my brother is/did), then a laptop is nearly useless. It's more diagram/graphs than writing.

And laptops make you procrastinate. They drag your attention away from class.

Don't deny it. They do. I know it and so do you.

Originally Posted by Tofu Drift Shinji

Pen and paper. I find it helps memorizing stuff too.

same here.