Originally Posted by lorend

Yup, the program is indeed called OneNote. Watch for an article about it very soon!

Has anyone (very long shot) used a Mac, installed Windows, and run OneNote with a tablet? That's something I'm interested in doing, as I'm going into engineering next year.

One note is such a good program when it comes to writing notes. You can create a diffrent "notebook" for each class which can easily be accessed in tabs on the side and then have many pages in that notebook that are also accessed by a side tab. You can also draw and make shapes like you would in paint so it you are able to make equations creatively

I'm really eager to try One Note. Heard gooood things.

As for taking notes...I typed them. But in a world where 90% of content is online and you just have to fill in some blanks. Getting notes is as easy as finding friends in the class and asking them for help. If you reciprocate when they ask you're on the path to a glorious life of networking.

Stopped taking notes in Math 1M03 because they were pointless, spent so much time writing them down I wasn't listening or understanding. Never took a single note in either Econ because they were online. Only course where my notes were helpful was Mercier's Geo, and for those that don't know he's what I call a sniper. He'll test you on the most TRIVIAL facts on the planet that weren't even mentioned.

Note to all profs....Trivia exams don't reflect my ability to learn, or the knowledge I have. Throw out the multiple choice once in awhile and make me *Think* with a long answer question. Jeeeez.

do you suggest buying/using a voice recorder for lectures/tutorials?

anitaa, you have to think about your own learning style. Realistically (as in, after the first few weeks of school), can you see yourself listening to all of your lectures again? If not, then there's a good chance that recording lectures won't help you, and might even hurt your grades. For myself, knowing that I was recording the lecture would give me an excuse to not take notes/not pay as much attention in class (because I would tell myself that I could always go back and re-listen to it), but never really get around to actually listening to them and making notes. I find it much more beneficial to skim a lecture outline/text chapter before lecture (so that you have a general idea of what will be covered, as well as what info is in the text), and then spend my class time listening to the prof explain the content.
If you're dead set on recording lectures, I might suggest trying that system for one or two classes - instead of your entire courseload. That way, you can see if it works for you, without potentially screwing yourself over for ALL of your courses. And it would be courteous to let the prof know that you're planning on recording their lectures. Most won't mind, but it's just a good idea to let them know.

Do lecture halls have lots of electrical outlets for laptops?

Define 'lots'. One for each student? Definately not.

The actual number of outlets though all depends on the hall and when it was built...I would suggest bringing a powercord, in case more than two people need to use an outlet in the same location

i found out that the best places for using power outlets in any classroom is either in the very front, very back, or to the extreme sides of the classrooms. in the middle, it is very hard to find power outlets.

Originally Posted by anitaa

do you suggest buying/using a voice recorder for lectures/tutorials?

I only know about two people who have bought voice recorders and actually gone back and typed up word for word what the prof said. They do well in their courses. However, it is rather time consuming.

During first year, I had a separate notebook for each class. It helped keep things organzied, but it wasn't very convienant. I would only take the notebooks for the classes I had that day (ie. on Tuesday, I would only take Political Science and Philosophy). But if I had a long break and wanted to work on my Women's Studies, I didn't have my notebook for that class. So it kind of sucked, unless it carried around every notebook every day.

Second year, I used one big notebook (with dividers) for all my classes. This was okay, but some notes were longer than others. I would run out of paper in one section, so I would continue the note in another section, and it got confusing.

Last year, I switched between my laptop and a clipboard. I took my laptop on shorter days, because it was heavy to carry around. I took a bunch of paper in a clipboard, wrote out my notes, then put them in a big, divided binder when I got home. That worked okay, though sometimes I lost the notes.

If you do use a laptop, BACK UP YOUR FILES. I have a CD in my laptop all the time. Whenever I save a note to my laptop, I also save it to my CD at the same time (just in case). Losing your notes is one of the worst things that can happen. [Also, make sure you have some paper and a pen just incase your battery dies, or you need to draw a diagram or something]

Also, make sure your battery is fully charged in the morning. If you have breaks throughout the day, charge your battery. The only room I know of that has a lot of outlets is MDCL 1105. There's an outlet for every seat, which is a little much. Then you go to other lecture halls where there is only 6 outlets for the entire 500 seats

I was just wondering what other methods people used to take notes, if people can please post their ways of taking notes I would really appreciate it thanks!

I do the One Note /tablet thing, and I like to do really graphical notes - illustrate as much as possible the concepts - I find that it helps me learn better.

Another really helpful thing to do I've found is to cross reference your notes - (alright, this works best if you have digital notes, but you can do it with handwritten notes if you are organized). I like to go back later through a section of notes and make references back to earlier lectures (if a concept comes up several times) or other classes ( a class that was a precursor to that one that explained a concept in more detail, or contains relavent information). I've found that this makes me a lot more organized, and it really helps understanding how things may or may not be connected. It's a bit like turning my notes into a bunch of wikipedia pages.

I'm in physics, so nearly all my courses refer back to one another in some way, so this is really helpful, But I think that others can use it too, to find connections between courses that weren't totally obvious

Hey! So I'm going into my 3rd year of engineering, and like 99% of people I know use a clipboard.

Put in a bunch of blank paper, write your notes on them, like seperate pages for seperate subjects (handy to write the subjec ton the corner) and at the end of the day/week take them out and put them into respective binders.

The other 1% is my one friend who has a tablet pc so he writes out his formulae and stuff.

so yes. long story short. best engineering notetaking technique ive encountered: CLIPBOARDS!

Originally Posted by micadjems

Hey! So I'm going into my 3rd year of engineering, and like 99% of people I know use a clipboard.

Put in a bunch of blank paper, write your notes on them, like seperate pages for seperate subjects (handy to write the subjec ton the corner) and at the end of the day/week take them out and put them into respective binders.

The other 1% is my one friend who has a tablet pc so he writes out his formulae and stuff.

so yes. long story short. best engineering notetaking technique ive encountered: CLIPBOARDS!

That's a good point. It definately depends what kind of classes you have.
History, Political Science, Philosphy, etc. are good classes for laptops.
Math, Engineering, Science, etc. are good classes for notebooks/clipboards (because you're drawing diagrams and writing formulas)

I'm in social science..what type do you suggest for that?