<p>Just trying to familiarized myself with college :)</p>
<p>So, does anyone here takes notes using their laptops, recording the lecture from a tape recorder or even film it with a video camera?</p>
<p>only one in a hundred. we still use notebooks. half the people dont' even take notes nowadays.</p>
<p>While I cannot speak specifically for UIUC yet (yay yet!), my transfer college only in one class did someone ever take notes on a laptop and that was in Calculus III (multivariable).</p>
<p>This is a method I have never done but it makes a good amount of sense:</p>
<p>Requires a yellow and blue highlighter.
When you read through the chapter text book BEFORE class, highlight important topics in yellow. These are topics you thought were important in the reading.</p>
<p>During the lecture, either take notes or follow along in the book and highlight what the instructor emphisizes as important in blue (even if it means overlapping stuff you already highlighted).</p>
<p>Then when you review/study that night, look at the colors.</p>
<p>Yellow: Skim, but dont study too hard since you already have studied it.</p>
<p>Blue: Spend extra time here. You didnt highlight it but the instructor placed importance on it.</p>
<p>Green (blue+yellow): Both you and your instructor covered this: Point well covered!</p>
<p>Now that may seem kind of out there and I admit, i have NEVER done that... it is a point worth considering in the fact that there are book facts and instructor facts.</p>
<p>My final point: Most people have probably flogged this to death but ill say it anyways: College studying is NO WHERE NEAR highschool studying.</p>
<p>In high school, what did we do even in our AP and Honors classes? Listen in class, dont take notes, and skim the book or notes the night before a test. Sure you might be able to get away with that in 100/1000 level classes...</p>
<p>But 99% of the time unless you really adjust your study habits you may have a bumpy ride at first. Learn to study before and after class even if there is not test.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>(sorry for the mild soap box speach but I hope you and anyone else who reads it finds it interesting).</p>
<p>hey snipper weren't u in the Air Force Academy threads? i see u got in to UIUC congrats!</p>
<p>@ snipper_cr</p>
<p>I think that does makes a lot of sense, but in my AP, my teacher told me that we do our reading from one source, while the professor teachers info from multiple sources other than the book that we read.</p>
<p>thats very true.</p>
<p>2 years of college under my belt already I have seen a smatering of teaching methods.</p>
<p>There are those who teach word for word, question by question from the book.</p>
<p>There are those who teach with the text book as a supplement to the lectures. My calculus class was like that. For text book he said "Get any college level calc book.... calculus hasnt changed in a couple hundred years"</p>
<p>Then there are those who you might not even need the text book. My religion class was like that. Instructor knew the material so well he would barely glance at his notes. I never read the second half of our text book and still passed with an A.</p>
<p>So you will learn how each instructor is.</p>
<p>You will learn this too: You know how AP instructors are all like "we are preparing you for college etc etc etc"? AP tests and AP classes are NOTHING like "real" college. The concept of AP classes are to cram as much as you can in the short year regardless of if you "understand" the material and spit it out on a predictable test.</p>
<p>All college instructors i have had always say it is FAR better to "understand" the material versus memorizing it for the test then dumping it the next day.</p>
<p>Tennisfan: Yeah i was over at the USAFA forum for 2 years trying hopelessly to get in. But alas, U of I and the FAA seem to have much smaller sticks where the sun dont shine than the B52s the Academy does...</p>