<p>what do you do for math? It seems like it would be a waste of time to look for every symbol when you could just hand-write it.</p>
<p>Most people don’t use laptops for math. The few that I’ve seen have the writing tablet things.</p>
<p>Bringing a laptop to class is pretty useless, in my experience. I took it to this one class where I spent the whole time playing Tetris and checking Facebook.</p>
<p>Laptops and math don’t mix. Some people get good at LaTeX and type it out like that, but it’s a pain in the hole. I would just hand-write it and type the notes up later if you were so inclined.</p>
<p>Notebooks for math.
Laptops for everything else until my battery runs out. I usually don’t like going onto facebook or anything. I don’t like people behind me reading my crap.</p>
<p>I think notebooks are best for every class. I think using a notebook is more engaging, (and doodling is more fun.)</p>
<p>i always get confused when people use notebook and laptop in the same post meaning different things :(</p>
<p>How else would we say it? Lol.</p>
<p>I use a legal pad for math.</p>
<p>For every other class though, I use a laptop. I do so because I type much, much faster than I write. Plus, when class is over–I can actually read what I wrote; my hand writing is very bad chicken scratch.</p>
<p>I’m the same. I type much faster. Open office has a pretty good Latex-like program in it so if you assigned some hotekeys for a few often-used symbols (probably changing them between lessons) you could probably pull it off with that.</p>
<p>“Laptops and math don’t mix. Some people get good at LaTeX and type it out like that, but it’s a pain in the hole. I would just hand-write it and type the notes up later if you were so inclined.”</p>
<p>LaTeX is great for lab reports and such, but I find that it’s a bit overkill to take notes for math classes with it.</p>
<p>I’m an engineering major, so I pretty much never use my laptop to take notes. I often bring it to class though… when I get bored, I either surf the Internet a bit or use that time to work on reports for other classes.</p>
<p>i just got a tablet laptop and that would be the only computer i’d bother using for math. there is a program that can be downloaded online called MathType but it wouldn’t be efficient for note taking in class, more of a thing for reports.</p>
<p>I never brought my laptop for formula/math heavy courses such as Calc, Physics, Chemistry. Too annoying.</p>
<p>If you’re doing a lot of math or engineering in college, a regular laptop will be very limited as a note-taking device. In math, you can use a program like LaTex (a scientific notation typesetting program) designed for camera ready publication. </p>
<p>The best solution, by far, is a Window-based Tablet PC which allows you to take notes by writing on the screen with a stylus. A convertible Tablet PC is just like a regular laptop with an attached keyboard but with a center hinged screen that allows the screen to swivel around and fold back on itself and lie flat against the keyboard. In this mode, it’s like writing on a legal pad. This allows you to write down math notes just as you would on paper.</p>
<p>“But wait, there’s more!” There’s a math program from Xthink called “MathJournal” specifically designed for Tablet PCs. You write down your math problem and the program gives you the answer. LaTex does not give you the answer. It just makes your notes or homework look nice. </p>
<p>As for your other classes, you can keep your Tablet PC in its regular laptop configuration and type your notes or write on the screen in Tablet mode. And in Tablet mode, you can doodle all you want without harming any trees. Best of all, you can “erase” it when your done…</p>
<p>See: [url=<a href=“http://www.xthink.com/MathJournal.html]xThink[/url”>http://www.xthink.com/MathJournal.html]xThink[/url</a>]</p>
<p>That tablet PC thing sounds really cool. Would I be able to use it for, say, econometrics classes?</p>
<p>I take my laptop to classes that are useless and do stuff for other classes there. I usually type up my notes from other classes. During lectures, I almost always take notes by hand.</p>
<p>what do u do with ur laptop during math? Same as in any other class: computer games</p>
<p>Nah, I’m a math major. Can’t do that.</p>
<p>well, I’m not in college yet, but come September I doubt I can resist the temptation that is Civilization III during a lecture</p>
<p>Get Civ IV, it’s much better really and not that expensive anymore.</p>