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Taking Lecture Notes - Computer or Notes

 
Old 08-26-2012 at 04:08 PM   #1
arestang
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Taking Lecture Notes - Computer or Notes
Hey i was about the best way to keep up with the prof when taking notes during lectures. Ive heard that professors can talk rather quickly but what would be the faster/best method; writing your notes in notebooks or typing them out on laptops?
THANKS
Old 08-26-2012 at 04:14 PM   #2
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IT's all about preferences. Some people take notes in notebooks, other on laptops. IT also depends on the course. In Chemistry, it's a lot hard to draw diagrams and stuff on a laptop without touchscreen.

If you are faster at writing notes than you are at typing, then do that. IF you are faster at typing than writing notes then do that instead. For me, I'm faster at typing than writing except in courses like Chem, Math, Physics.
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Old 08-26-2012 at 04:23 PM   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by arestang View Post
Hey i was about the best way to keep up with the prof when taking notes during lectures. Ive heard that professors can talk rather quickly but what would be the faster/best method; writing your notes in notebooks or typing them out on laptops?
THANKS
It entirely depends on you and the courses you are taking. You should try out both methods in each course and see what works best for you.
Old 08-26-2012 at 05:01 PM   #4
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No shorthand on computer...diagrams hard to draw...symbols...
But then you have those dear people who take three sheets of paper, lose one, crumble the other, and keep the third tucked away in an old calculus book until the night before the midterm...
Old 08-26-2012 at 05:32 PM   #5
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the rate the prof talks at only matters if you plan on transcribing his lectures....
transcribing doesn't count as note-taking
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Old 08-26-2012 at 05:35 PM   #6
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I prefer the computer because then you can easily store/back-up/share the notes. As far as graphs/diagrams are concerned, I am now an expert at drawing really fast in paint and c/ping it into my notes
Old 08-26-2012 at 05:44 PM   #7
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If you plan on taking notes on the computer, Foxit might help.
(http://www.foxitsoftware.com /secure_pdf_reader/)

The Prof will have posted the day's lecture notes on Avenue. Download the pdf lecture and open it up on Foxit. The program will allow you to type in extra notes on the pdf lecture itself, instead of having to type it all up on a program like Word, and trying to combine your notes with the Prof's lecture notes afterwards.
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Old 08-26-2012 at 10:06 PM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by -Ish- View Post
If you plan on taking notes on the computer, Foxit might help.
(http://www.foxitsoftware.com /secure_pdf_reader/)

The Prof will have posted the day's lecture notes on Avenue. Download the pdf lecture and open it up on Foxit. The program will allow you to type in extra notes on the pdf lecture itself, instead of having to type it all up on a program like Word, and trying to combine your notes with the Prof's lecture notes afterwards.
Since your link is not directing me to the right page, do any of their readers do this or do you need the Advanced PDF editor?
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Old 08-27-2012 at 07:47 AM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Snowman View Post
Since your link is not directing me to the right page, do any of their readers do this or do you need the Advanced PDF editor?
Weird.. Try this: http://www.foxitsoftware.com /Secur...der/addons.php
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Old 08-27-2012 at 08:25 AM   #10
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Depends on your classes so you kind of have to adapt to whatever you get. I'm in business so most of the lecture I can type (in contrast to math classes for example). I definitely prefer typing as it's faster and neater for me. I've also heard that tablets are convenient for some. For PDF programs I'd recommend PDF-XChange Viewer - the free version is pretty good but you can't add/extract pages. I haven't really needed that function though. I mean, you could also coughpiratecough it... I've also recently tried Sumatra PDF and I think it sucks.
Old 08-27-2012 at 10:27 AM   #11
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Math, Physics, Chem etc you should hand write... Or any classes where the prof just writes all the notes on the board.

But if they have slides and they just talk, typing can be fastest. If you use a program that writes directly on pdfs, the one I tried was annoying because you had to click on the slide where you wanted the text to show up, so if you change places on the slide, or you want to type a novel, it can be annoying to format and get right.
I'd just type in a Word Doc titled "slide 1" "slide 2"

In tutorials I like to write, because at the end of the tutorial I usually find the whole thing useless and toss the entire scribbly note.
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