What's the best way to take notes in class?

sopranokitty
Mon, 22 Jul 2013 01:40:18 +0000

It depends. I type faster than I can write, so I use my laptop whenever I can. For certain classes, like math and science classes, I use pen and paper. If your professors don’t podcast (I know at UC Davis, a majority of the professors podcast their lectures, which is extremely convenient), ask them if you can record their lectures. If they don’t, see if your school has a service where people can sell their notes (for example, UC Davis has something called Classical Notes–someone is hired to take notes for a particular class, they hand over the notes (which they have to convert to typed format) to the Classical Notes staff, who then sell the notes to students), or make friends with someone else in the class so that you can compare notes and see what you’ve missed, or visit your professor’s office hours to ask about any gaps in your notes.

@ SLACFac: I’ve had professors who say everything they’ve ever taught prior to a test is “fair game” and even ask questions about something they’ve only mentioned once in lecture. For example, in my prior Physiology class, there was a question pertaining to something the professor said in only one lecture, and if you didn’t remember exactly what he said or weren’t there for that lecture, well, that’s a point lost (and on a 20 point quiz, one point can really make a difference between an A and a B or a B and a C).