tmacgirl

I have never tried to record a lecture however one of my friends started to record last semester and it seemed to be working well for her. I was wondering if any of you guys record lectures and is it worth it. I don't want to shell out 200$ for a good recorder and not even use it.

ASC

$200?! What? Most $20 mp3 players come with one!!

--that's what I use, anyway--

tmacgirl

Well the one that I found was around that price. And I wanted to get a good one since my lecture halls are really big and I want to catch what the prof is saying.

Cards4Life

What happened to just going, paying attention, taking notes, etc.?

Seems to work for the majority of college students...and frankly it's not that hard.

OKgirl

I started a thread like this a while back (same name & everything). I just thought that it would have been neat to be able to put it on my ipod and listen to the lecture while I drive or run or something.

burgler09

I can't imagine being able to pay attention to a lecture.. anyways, in my opinion, to get good grades you have to go above and beyond what is covered in lecture. What you should be doing is studying your notes and book and more instead of just listening to the lecture again. Try doing the problems different ways.

tmacgirl

^I do all of that and I have good marks. However alot my profs take test material from the lectures and not from the book. So studying the lecture would actually improve test scores. However I should note that I would not simply relistening to the lecture (although I am an auditory learner) I would be trying to find any missing pieces or things that at the time I did not think was important enough to write down.
Okgirl- I searched your thread and your view point is the same as mine.
I'll try it and see where it goes.

demeter

I think it's actually a great idea, provided that you actually have the time and inclination to listen to those lectures. Some professors speak very quickly, and you might not be able to get everything down.

I'm also interested in the type of recorders one uses.

b@r!um

I don't think I would have the time to listen to the recordings again.

burgler09

tmacgirl, i think it depends on the major. In chemistry courses.. the lecture is a place to ask questions and get a general idea of the countless hours of horror you will face at night :P

GoldShadow

I think recording lectures is a giant waste of time.

Go to lecture, listen, take notes (quickly), and review them shortly afterward. Time spent re-listening to lecture is time you could have spent going through your notes and making better sense of them, studying material for other classes, or having fun.

tmacgirl

Burgler- I have taken 6 different chemistry courses already and not one of them was the place to ask questions. We did that in tutorial sessions and office hours. However my campus is very LARGE compared to most schools.

Cards4Life

Some other things that you can do so you don't have to listen to the lecture again but can use as good ways to learn the material:

--Don't write every single word. Learn shorthand, abbreviate, summarize 4 or 5 sentences down to 1 or 2.

--If the prof posts their notes/slides online beforehand, print them and add extra info that s/he says to the notes you have in front of you.

--This goes along with the first one, but if your prof uses slides in class but doesn't post them online beforehand (or at all), you can usually summarize one slide into 2 or 3 sentences, and once you get used to this you can shorthand them even more.

--Use your book to fill in and get more info on things that confused you, or go over your notes with a friend to compare what you got and pick up some things you may have missed.

catsushi

Why not just use a video camera?

shan324

wish i was allowed to record a class or 2. at my school u have to have a disability and special permission to use a recorder, which i dont see as very fair. at least my note skills are getting better!