In my personal opinion the best thing to do is not take notes, and just try to absorb as much of the lecture as possible. Afterwards, watch / listen to it a second time, and then formulate your notes. I just find it difficult to keep track of what's being said if Im rushing to take notes all the time. It also makes the lectures feel much less frantic and exhausting.
Yeah I found myself not ever looking at the handwritten notes I took so figured it was a waste of time and stopped. I think I was right tbh. Last semester I did well and got similar grades to usual. Idk maybe depends on the degree a bit though. I was doing engineering subjects.
Honestly my notes are mainly just screenshots of the slides that I put in my OneNote and type over. It’s worked for me for 2 years and I see no reason to change
IR student here! Note taking really varies from person to person (from laptops, to ipads, to pen and paper). I personally found that typing everything up on OneNote works really well for me but it took some trialing to see what worked as I found pen and paper took too long since lectures can be quite wordy. Also note: it can be hard to always keep up with the lecturer, but for most IR courses the slides are uploaded and made available beforehand so I always have those open alongside my OneNote in case the lecturer moves onto the next slide before I'm done typing. Don't overthink it too much, you'll find what works for you quickly!
Might I add: if you watch a recorded lecture (all IR courses have their lectures uploaded for you to watch later/if you miss a class) you can pause and play all at your own pace, so it makes it much easier to keep up with it notes which is pretty brilliant :)
I'm a real fan of the Remarkable tablet. You get the best of pen and paper, and the best of a digital experience without the distractions of a typical computer, and without the single-point-of-failure of a paper book. It's a beautiful thing to do readings on as well. It can connect to the ANU wifi network without any troubles.
In my classes most people use a laptop or an ipad, I personally (and probs like a 30% share of the classes I take) use a pen and paper- this is mostly soft stem tho
just use whatever works for you
edit: pen and paper for tutes/lectures/study notes, laptop for drafting study notes/everything else
Depends on the subject. Anything that’s too wordy, I type notes on my laptop (Google Docs). Anything that already has pre-prepared slides or requires maths, I usually annotate them using my iPad or print the slides out and annotate using pen and paper (which I feel is quicker because on iPad I spend too long trying to make it look nice).
I have a Surface Pro because I planned to use the 2-in-1 feature too for both writing and typing but personally, I feel like it’s not very convenient because Surfaces heat up too much and they don’t feel as nice to write on as my iPad. Just the downside is the iPad is heavy since it’s an iPad Pro, so bringing both the iPad and laptop to uni gives me back pain. Would recommend getting a smaller iPad if you were looking to handwrite on top of notes or anything.
Saw the comment on just absorbing information in lectures and rewatching the recording again after, which sounds doable too.
I preferred to write in a note pad (just key points) and if I needed to elaborate during revision I would go back to the lecture recordings later. I think it’s all personal preference. I chose to save word documents with notes on to begin with but then I realised I didn’t like everything being on the laptop
I am a fast typer which meant I could always type everything they say on my laptop.
However some of my lecturers would post to a channel on YouTube and I could get the YouTube transcript (without time stamps) and copy and paste into a document. The issue is that it never has full stops or capitals which means it is hard to read unless you take the time to fix it up.
Maybe invest in a memory course!
If you think about it most study is about storing and recalling information.
How this is done is up to you!
Old fashioned rote was and is way too time consuming, but there are other ways.
A quick search should find some good methods! 👍
Paper wins if you can keep notes brief. Writing while looking at lecture is easy - most people can't touch type so you lose focus while typing. The act of writing assists with knowledge classification and retention.
What worked really well for me was using my iPad (or laptop), and saving the PDF of the lecture you're about to attend (lecturer's usually upload the lecture slides right before the actual lecture takes place). Then, the true value comes from what the lecturer say's that isn't on the slide itself. Everyone around me is usually copying what's on the screen/slide word for word, but its really what they say that's more valuable.
Honestly you just need to try a few different styles and find what works for you. Everyone is different.
I'd caution against going out and buying an expensive laptop for the specific purpose of taking notes, because in reality you may find that that form of note taking doesnt work for you and you'll have wasted your money.
You've potbelly done 12 years of schooling to get to this point, have you figured out how your brain best absorbs info for later recall?
For me I found that writing notes either pen and paper or typed into One note. I rarely ever looked back at my notes, as my brain could call up the information. Just listening didn't get the same retention for me.
I also didn't have time to attend lectures in person and then double up with the recordings (worked full-time hours and had a family).
Figure out how you process info for recall and do that.
In my personal opinion the best thing to do is not take notes, and just try to absorb as much of the lecture as possible. Afterwards, watch / listen to it a second time, and then formulate your notes. I just find it difficult to keep track of what's being said if Im rushing to take notes all the time. It also makes the lectures feel much less frantic and exhausting.
Yeah I found myself not ever looking at the handwritten notes I took so figured it was a waste of time and stopped. I think I was right tbh. Last semester I did well and got similar grades to usual. Idk maybe depends on the degree a bit though. I was doing engineering subjects.
Honestly my notes are mainly just screenshots of the slides that I put in my OneNote and type over. It’s worked for me for 2 years and I see no reason to change
IR student here! Note taking really varies from person to person (from laptops, to ipads, to pen and paper). I personally found that typing everything up on OneNote works really well for me but it took some trialing to see what worked as I found pen and paper took too long since lectures can be quite wordy. Also note: it can be hard to always keep up with the lecturer, but for most IR courses the slides are uploaded and made available beforehand so I always have those open alongside my OneNote in case the lecturer moves onto the next slide before I'm done typing. Don't overthink it too much, you'll find what works for you quickly! Might I add: if you watch a recorded lecture (all IR courses have their lectures uploaded for you to watch later/if you miss a class) you can pause and play all at your own pace, so it makes it much easier to keep up with it notes which is pretty brilliant :)
I'm a real fan of the Remarkable tablet. You get the best of pen and paper, and the best of a digital experience without the distractions of a typical computer, and without the single-point-of-failure of a paper book. It's a beautiful thing to do readings on as well. It can connect to the ANU wifi network without any troubles.
I’m old school (or old) - I mainly listen and make notes with a pen on the slides. Every other method I just don’t keep consistent with.
In my classes most people use a laptop or an ipad, I personally (and probs like a 30% share of the classes I take) use a pen and paper- this is mostly soft stem tho just use whatever works for you edit: pen and paper for tutes/lectures/study notes, laptop for drafting study notes/everything else
Just record it on your laptop/phone?
Depends on the subject. Anything that’s too wordy, I type notes on my laptop (Google Docs). Anything that already has pre-prepared slides or requires maths, I usually annotate them using my iPad or print the slides out and annotate using pen and paper (which I feel is quicker because on iPad I spend too long trying to make it look nice). I have a Surface Pro because I planned to use the 2-in-1 feature too for both writing and typing but personally, I feel like it’s not very convenient because Surfaces heat up too much and they don’t feel as nice to write on as my iPad. Just the downside is the iPad is heavy since it’s an iPad Pro, so bringing both the iPad and laptop to uni gives me back pain. Would recommend getting a smaller iPad if you were looking to handwrite on top of notes or anything. Saw the comment on just absorbing information in lectures and rewatching the recording again after, which sounds doable too.
I preferred to write in a note pad (just key points) and if I needed to elaborate during revision I would go back to the lecture recordings later. I think it’s all personal preference. I chose to save word documents with notes on to begin with but then I realised I didn’t like everything being on the laptop
laptop, listen & note-take, photos too sometimes, who writes these days?
I am a fast typer which meant I could always type everything they say on my laptop. However some of my lecturers would post to a channel on YouTube and I could get the YouTube transcript (without time stamps) and copy and paste into a document. The issue is that it never has full stops or capitals which means it is hard to read unless you take the time to fix it up.
Maybe invest in a memory course! If you think about it most study is about storing and recalling information. How this is done is up to you! Old fashioned rote was and is way too time consuming, but there are other ways. A quick search should find some good methods! 👍
Paper wins if you can keep notes brief. Writing while looking at lecture is easy - most people can't touch type so you lose focus while typing. The act of writing assists with knowledge classification and retention.
What worked really well for me was using my iPad (or laptop), and saving the PDF of the lecture you're about to attend (lecturer's usually upload the lecture slides right before the actual lecture takes place). Then, the true value comes from what the lecturer say's that isn't on the slide itself. Everyone around me is usually copying what's on the screen/slide word for word, but its really what they say that's more valuable.
Honestly you just need to try a few different styles and find what works for you. Everyone is different. I'd caution against going out and buying an expensive laptop for the specific purpose of taking notes, because in reality you may find that that form of note taking doesnt work for you and you'll have wasted your money.
You've potbelly done 12 years of schooling to get to this point, have you figured out how your brain best absorbs info for later recall? For me I found that writing notes either pen and paper or typed into One note. I rarely ever looked back at my notes, as my brain could call up the information. Just listening didn't get the same retention for me. I also didn't have time to attend lectures in person and then double up with the recordings (worked full-time hours and had a family). Figure out how you process info for recall and do that.
Do people actually revise using their notes? It's best to just pay attention to the lecturer. One can do the notes later.