<p>Every time I go to lecture, I struggle with how I'm going to listen to the professor because I try taking notes every class but my writing cannot keep up with how fast my professors speak. This means that as I'm trying to finish up a note, my professor's already moving on to a new topic which I try to listen to but then I forget why I'm writing down what I'm writing down in the first place and I can't concentrate as much on my professor's new point. As a result, I look over my notes after lecture and get confused on many of the things I write. </p>
<p>It's so frustrating too because then I realize how useless my notes are and then don't try to take notes at all and I've been starting to not take notes for my lectures for the last few weeks. Of course, then I feel like I'm missing out on a bunch of important things by not taking notes. The only solution I've found is to understand the material first before going to lecture but then I feel like that devalues the notion of going to class in the first place (and it takes a bunch of time/energy to be proficient at something, on your own, for the first time).</p>
<p>I've tried to type my notes too during class but I'm a chem. engineering major so there's a lot of notation in my classes that I don't know how to write with a laptop.</p>
<p>Usually the advisable thing is to read the textbook before lecture. Some people record their lectures. I’ve seen someone with an external webcam attached to her laptop - it seems effective. If the professor writes things down too fast I usually just take a picture of the board instead of trying to write it down.</p>
<p>I’d jot down the notes and record the lecture if I could. </p>
<p>I don’t jot every single thing the professor says down. I don’t think anyone should. Just the important stuff. I try and pay a strong amount of attention to the professor and what they’re trying to do. If it is still confusing, go over it again by going through the book directly after class. Then, refer to your notes again to see what he was trying to do.</p>
<p>You don’t miss out on anything by not taking notes if you’re paying attention. I don’t see how one does unless they are forgetful. You miss out a lot by taking notes the whole time because you wind up with a bunch of notes you never look at again.</p>
<p>Honestly, for me, I take notes but only do it out of habit. I never look at them ever again unless I figured something I thought about during the lecture came up in the homework. In my math classes (as a math major), I do not jot down any of the ideas. I pay attention to those. I will jot down all of the examples, though. It gives me a “feel” for the problem.</p>
<p>This may sound awkward, but it could work: go to your prof’s office hours and explain that you’re having a hard time taking notes. Ask him/her to look over your notes and make suggestions…are you missing the main points? too much detail? too little? </p>
<p>The suggestion to read the text first is a good one. At least do a quick skim, so that your task while notetaking is one of recognition. For example, I teach a class that uses Supreme Court cases, and it’s easy to tell which students have read the text because they’re already going to the implications of the case while the ones who are hearing about it for the first time are still asking basic fact questions like “what time of day did that happen?” </p>
<p>Different people have different learning styles, as you know. For me, I need to write it to really remember it, whereas my son only needs to listen to someone say it. For him, notetaking actually detracted from his learning but for me it is crucial. If you can identify your own learning style, you might be able to find some shortcuts that play to your strengths.</p>
<p>maybe try doing some sort of pre lecture note taking with the help of your book. Make some sort of out line leaving space for addtional detals provided by your professor. if possible record your lecture, I’m willing to bet you can do on your laptop.</p>
<p>Make sure you do not have auditory processing disorder. Despite perfect physical hearing, my son can’t process conversations quickly. We discovered it in 8th grade as his lectures became more intense. Otherwise, he compensated perfectly. It’s very difficult for him to take notes and listen simultaneously, despite being quite bright.</p>
<p>Like you, I also can’t take notes and listen to the professor at the same time. I take notes where I can (and it helps when my professors write on the board instead of use powerpoints), but otherwise I just listen to the professor. Luckily, most of my professors podcast their lectures, but for the ones that don’t podcast, I record their lectures so I can listen to it over and over later (which is tedious in itself because I have to pause and rewind the lecture over and over again to take notes, and it’s also difficult for me to distinguish words when listening to recordings–I could mistake one word for another). What I found helped was going over the lecture material for that day so that I have an idea of what’s going to be covered so I don’t have to write as much.</p>