<p>I assume most if not all professors allow laptops during lectures for note taking? If this is the case, how many of you use laptops instead of a pen/pencil/paper? What are the pros and cons of either?</p>
<p>From my experiences you see a lot more laptop note taking when you’re taking a north campus class, it can vary depending on what subject, but you’d get anywhere from like 5 percent to 40ish percent. I haven’t been in a class yet that bans laptops…but I dunno, I’m not a senior haha.</p>
<p>For history and the like, laptops are a LOT more useful and you’re gonna have class mates begging for your notes at the end of the quarter (and the midterm)…but on the other hand you can get distracted. Also in the science courses laptops are kinda useless…you can’t really draw a molecule that fast etc. or diagram some physics problem.</p>
<p>I usually use pencil and paper. It’s easier to draw diagrams for math/physics classes.</p>
<p>Laptop pros:
Typing words is faster than writing
Internet</p>
<p>Laptop cons:
Drawing diagrams is slower
Battery life might become an issue
Internet</p>
<p>Yeah, it only really works for non-science type classes. The handful of people that have laptops in science classes are usually using it to surf the web or play solitaire. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>People also use them to record lectures…</p>
<p>ive tried using my laptop a few times, and its pretty stupid. nothing beats pencil and paper.</p>
<p>Laptops
Advantages
Type faster
Neater
Easier to organize</p>
<p>Disadvantages
Can’t study while on the go, may discourage review
HDD failure risk (solution is just to back it up frequently)</p>
<p>Paper
Advantages
Rote memorization only comes with physically writing, not typing
Can be studied anywhere (while walking to class)
Can see all information at once (write on one side of the paper, you can recycle the other side for other notes in future quarters)</p>
<p>Disadvantages
More easily lost (just be organized)</p>
<p>Personally, I prefer writing with ball point pens on loose-leaf paper so I can organize it later. I think laptops are just distracting and I have a tendency to just type whatever the prof says, as opposed to paraphrasing it in a way that makes sense to me.</p>
<p>Also, I’d recommend not recording lectures…I mean you’re already at the lecture, why do you want to listen to it again? Just take notes while you’re there (unless, of course, you’re can’t stay awake…)</p>
<p>how is paper note-taking bad for organization? just write in a notebook…</p>
<p>
I’ve been using dropbox ([Dropbox</a> - Home - Secure backup, sync and sharing made easy.](<a href=“http://www.getdropbox.com%5DDropbox”>http://www.getdropbox.com)) since Spring quarter so that 1) I won’t have to be worried about losing my files and 2) I am able to access my homework or notes from any computer with access to the web. Pretty easy solution.</p>
<p>Also, I actually study on-the-go sometimes with my lil netbook.</p>
<p>Anyways, it’s a personal preference. If you find that you “learn” better with pencil and paper, then stick to it. If not, most professors will allow you to use a laptop to take notes in class.</p>
<p>If you bring your laptop and there happens to be wifi, I doubt you’ll be diligently typing notes.</p>
<p>I preferred to use the laptop for note since it was easier to keep up with the pace of some teachers. Plus, my writing is MAD messy. I have trouble reading my own writing half the time!</p>
<p>I’d assume laptop makes more sense for north campus classes; for south campus classes though, it would really depend.</p>
<p>If your professors use lecture slides and put them online prior to the lecture, you could use a pdf program and just annotate using that in class with text-boxes.</p>
<p>Otherwise, I find tablet laptops quite decent for this. It’s a lot more organised because you can just write your notes straight into the laptop using the touch screen, and organise everything into tabs so you can flip through them really quickly.</p>
<p>Unless you have a tablet laptop though, writing notes on paper might be better, to be honest.</p>
<p>I mean I use loose-leaf paper so I can organize the notes in whatever order I want later (as opposed to being forced to look at it only in chronological order)</p>
<p>:)</p>
<p>if you use a laptop, try utilizing Microsoft OneNote 2007 as your note-taking application; it’s great for organizing your notes by class into little “notebooks”</p>
<p>One note’s the f***** best, one note’s the f***** best, it’s the best i ever had, best i ever had</p>
<p>You can also take notes on Powerpoints using One Note; just print the powerpoint to One Note 
It’s a lot easier than PDF imo and then it saves paper.</p>
<p>
What’s your major?</p>