I don't like taking notes and I don't like memorizing!

<p>Is this you </p>

<p>or is this opposite of you?</p>

<p>how do you get through college without doing that???</p>

<p>I hate taking notes and memorizing things too but I don’t know what to do to help this situation.</p>

<p>It sounds like you hate the very essence of college work. </p>

<p>I tend to doodle and scribble all over my notes, but I can memorize stuff in a snap. I find that the doodling makes notetaking more bearable, and it tends to amuse whoever is sitting next to me.</p>

<p>I hate that stuff too. I like to listen and actively participate to learn. I love the classes that utilize this. Its disappointing that so many classes require regurgitating what the professor says to you. But I push through it so I can get a career doing what I want to do. I think more time should be spent on classes related to major rather than gen ed. classes that I have no interest in, but that’s just me.</p>

<p>In what subject do you think it is possible to do well without knowing information?</p>

<p>pretty sure everyone hates it</p>

<p>it’s not like people go “oh boy! time to go to college! i can’t wait to take notes and memorize things!”</p>

<p>i’m pretty lazy with notes, i tend to daydream in class a lot (they’re awfully early)</p>

<p>but the exams aren’t based on just memorizing and regurgitating; in math/phys/chem it comes down to learning to think more logically/analytically and solve problems. in my bio classes there’s a lot of memorizing but the test questions require you to manipulate what you’ve learned (like if X protein malfunctions in Y process then how will that affect blahblah or whatever). </p>

<p>no one likes it, but it’s inevitable. I don’t like mondays but they come around every couple of days anyhow…betchya don’t like mondays either, huh? :/</p>

<p>This is definitely the case with me. I just chose a major in which understanding the concepts is more important than memorization.</p>

<p>During lectures, I have pen and paper, but not pen and notebook. In the average lecture, I take half a page of incomprehensible jottings. That’s because the piece of paper is used to check that I understand a concept, as well as to make sure that I don’t fall asleep.</p>

<p>Most of my learning comes from doing assignments and going above and beyond what’s assigned. If I have questions in lecture, I write them down on the piece of paper and go to office hours.</p>

<p>As midterms and finals approach, I feel confident about the subject and my “studying” is more like a checkover to ensure that I understand all the concepts. Then, I confidently pass the tests with a great feeling that I won’t ever forget anything I knew at that point of time.</p>

<p>My major is electrical engineering and computer science. This generally applies to any engineering or math major. I don’t take notes, and I don’t memorize, but I do just fine. :)</p>

<p>I like reading. So I read my text book (chapters required for the test, etc) a couple of times. </p>

<p>Maybe I do memorize the stuff, but I intend to only familiarize myself with the material I’m being tested on.</p>

<p>I take notes sometimes, but I never review them. I usually lose them or they’re too unorganized for me to give any effort organizing them and putting them together to study.</p>

<p>I hate both…</p>

<p>I rarely take notes anymore because most of my teachers have powerpoints online, so unless we work a problem I don’t see the point. As for memorizing, I do the bare minimum… I memorize a small portion of information that will help me figure out information that branches off of that. I value understanding concepts over rote memorization, any day. It’s a better use of my time. I’d be a horrible history student haha.</p>

<p>Yeah, ditto what excelblue said.</p>

<p>I hate taking notes, but then, I have an (almost) photographic memory. :D</p>

<p>I have the same problem. The technique I’ve used is to just convince myself that the material is applicable to something I find interesting (IE I hate statistics, but I’d like to work in game design and game research someday, so I figure it’ll be applicable to conducting studies on user patterns). Like you said, there are usually powerpoints of the notes online so I don’t take any, and I just read the material online and try to make it applicable to my life so that I retain the information more easily. That way it doesn’t feel like rote memorization.</p>

<p>I dislike memorization but I don’t mind taking notes. Luckily math majors are not expected to memorize much. I get to spend the bulk of my academic time on problem sets. :)</p>

<p>There’s no way out of taking notes though. I need a verbatim record of the definitions and theorems stated in class so that I know what I am allowed to use on the homework. While the textbook covers the same material, it might define terms differently or prove theorems in a different order.</p>

<p>I like taking notes and once I write it, it’s usually memorized as well. I also like to draw around what I write. I get bored if I don’t draw, and I pay better attention when I do draw.</p>