Preferred form of note taking

[strongbad]

College hasn't started for me yet, but I am contemplating what to do. I'm leaning towards bringing my netbook to classes (because the battery on my laptop won't last through some of my classes, let alone days, fuckin' i7) and using Evernote and Google Docs almost exclusively, since they are both cloud based which will mean I will be able to open the same stuff on my laptop back in my room without the need for a flash drive or anything.

So what do you do? If you use computers, what software do you use?

[Samus Aran]

pencil and paper, when i actually bother taking notes, which isn't often

[ME##]

I prefer using my brain.

[YPrrrr]

Pen and paper unless the prof provides the power point slides

[Boogus Epirus Aurelius]

A lot of time it depends on the class. I abhor using laptops as an alternative though.

I've had professors put up their entire powerpoint lectures online, so in those cases my notes sucked.
I've had one professor in particular, though, who didn't use any visual media at all, not even scribblings on the board, so notetaking was a little more involved. For that particular guy, I used a digital voice recorder and set it on my desk in front of me. It not only picked up the professor, but the discussions as well, some of which got pretty heated (my studies in racism class).

Do what's most comfortable for you and use something that offers little distraction. I cant emphasize this enough, unless it's a media based class where it comes in handy. Leave your laptop out of the classroom. Simple pen and paper (and moderate organization) forces you to listen to the prof instead of trying to format an outline on a word processor as he's flying at one hundred words every few seconds. Blegh.

It's really easy to let your mind slip, just like high school, in the boring required why-the-fuck-do-I-have-to-take-this-for-my-degree classes.

Enjoy!

P.s.-if your professor does provide pp slides beforehand, print them out! Your school probably gives you a credit to print a certain amount free per semester.

[Hiro]

pencil and paper, when i actually bother taking notes, which isn't often

That's what my sister says, but she's majoring in Marketing/Photography, so I wonder how different it'll be with my Engineering major.

[Nyerp]

taking computer notes in spanish (accented characters), chemistry (chemical equations), and math (θÃ�â,¬) is a bad idea, and technology isn't allowed in my history class

so pencil and paper

[Thyme]

what kaz said

Especially now that my teachers bother making PDFs of everything.

[??????]

pencil and paper, although near the latter half of the year i started using my voice-recorder, but that shit kept picking up weird sounds so i abandoned it

i cannot stand 'cornell' style, most of my notes deal with conceptual maps and doodles as well with plenty of stickers and stick pads plastered over it

for some reason people think its cool

[snorkel]

pen and paper, it's the easiest way to go back and add/edit or more importantly, visually organize things as you're writing them.

[Selkie]

I only use pen and a notebook.

Because my notes aren't nice structured lines, they are like crazy charts, graphs, groupings, lines and arrows going all over the place, pictures, maps, hieroglyphics, whatever the fuck will visualize the content better for me.


also, in boring classes that don't require note-taking, i like to doodle 

[[REDACTED]]

I got the livescribe pen from the local assistive technology group to help me take notes and record lectures. I just hope the professor doesn't realize that it isn't just a plain old pen.

[strongbad]

I got the livescribe pen from the local assistive technology group to help me take notes and record lectures. I just hope the professor doesn't realize that it isn't just a plain old pen.

Can't you also upload those notes to a computer? How do you like it?

[Andria]

pencil and paper, when i actually bother taking notes, which isn't often

This

I rarely take notes

but when I do they are always pencil and paper

[[REDACTED]]

Can't you also upload those notes to a computer? How do you like it?

Yes, I could also upload my notes. I haven't used it extensively yet, though.