So far my whole academic career has involved me hand writing notes, this has helped me retain the information but it’s super time consuming. I know people who have been successful by just reading off the notes, so I’m curious about other people’s experiences with this?
I have 4 classes this semester which use PowerPoints during lecture and each of the professors put the PowerPoints up online, so it is easy and more efficient for me to print the notes. I’m just worried that it will be hard for me to remember things because I’ve never studied this way before… the professors all go really fast in class so I would have to take the notes on my own time rather than in class :l
Another study compared the academic success of student in 2 upper level microbiology sections. One section had traditional lecture w/handwritten notes; the second used a hybrid instructional model where student were given online lecture notes.
I have a sister that prints off notes and loves it, but she is going into elementary education so that’s quite a bit different. Personally, I would recommend hand writing notes, because formatting it yourself the first time is better for condensing notes later. If your hand writing is sloppy and you prefer typing, that would be fine too. I type my notes mainly and have found that the best way for me to study is condensing them down so I fully process the information in order to write down the concepts instead of the details.
I hope this helps! I know it can be time consuming, but it pays off in the end when you have to cram less before the test.
Personally, I learn best by writing. I can write down directions and never look at them; writing them gets them into my head.
That’s why I try to insist that my students take notes, as opposed to merely posting them online-- it’s the writing of the notes, not their ownership, that gets the material into the heads of many of my kids.
It’s really a matter of learning just what works best for you.