<p>When I do take notes, it’s almost always on a computer. I need to multi-task in order to pay attention in class. It’s a terrible habit, I know, but if I don’t multi-task, I do not retain information. Therefore, when I take notes by hand, I play with my phone and then do not take notes at all. At least on the computer, I can switch back and forth between notes and other stuff. </p>
<p>Out of respect for my classmates though, I always sit near the back or sides of classes if I take notes on a computer. One of my biggest pet peeves is when people sit near the front and center of class and just mess around on line all class. It’s so distracting to everyone around them.</p>
<p>In my large humanities lecture courses, nearly everyone takes notes on laptops. (I don’t take math.) I don’t find the laptops annoying…I am kind of grateful for the people playing minesweeper! It’s soothing in a brainless sort of way. </p>
<p>I’m a pen-and-paper kind of girl, though. My thoughts tend to flow very quickly and to be slightly garbled. Like everyone else, I can type much more quickly than I can write. As such, notes when I type tend to pass from my ears to my fingers without consulting my brain, and end up too wordy and rather jumbled. Taking notes by hand wires my brain into the circuit, too, and so I get much better notes. I do fall a little behind sometimes, but I usually catch up. Also, drawings in the margins are a good motivational tool for reviewing one’s notes!</p>
<p>If part of an essay must be eloquent, I write that by hand as well. Crossing out things works much better for me than deleting them, in addition to the whole incoherence problem when my fingers can transmit my thoughts too quickly. Hooray for pen and paper!</p>
<p>i hate sitting next to people who open up their 17 inch laptop, invading part of my writing space -___-</p>
<p>also, the people who are in front of you playing games and surfing through facebook photos… i can see why a lot of my professors hated people with laptops.</p>