<p>Hi CC!!
I'm trying to decide what to do for note taking in college next year. I am stuck between a tablet and a Livescribe Smartpen. I don't know which one is better or which one is better for college. So, if you guys have any advice for either, it would be greatly appreciated.
Thank You!</p>
<p>If you are taking a social science class or a history class or something, where you mostly just write down some facts and concepts and then take a test on them, a laptop is probably useful. Personally, I haven’t used anything but pen/pencil and paper so far. Working out pretty great for me, personally. I go to a community college, though, and have only seen one person in one class who generally used anything else. Maybe live scribe is cool.</p>
<p>You’re going to want a keyboard if you go the tablet route. Most college classes move pretty quickly and you’re not going to have time for the touchscreen keyboard.</p>
<p>Honestly, I always used pen and paper. Physically writing it down helped me remember things, and it’s much easier to add, scratch out, move things etc. on paper than to have to go back and re-do things on a tablet.</p>
<p>For note taking a normally use a pen and paper. Like HisGrace said, physically writing it down helps me. I’ve used a laptop in a class before, because I was a notetaker and it was easier for me to type it up and email to the person that to have to worry if my handwriting was messy and making copies.</p>
<p>By the tablet I mean to use a handwriting app and a stylus and write down notes like that then use a handwriting recognition program to convert it to text. Just figured to let you guys know!</p>
<p>Eh…that’s still extra time and work you could easily avoid. Plus, what if the software misses something, or what if your tablet stops working, etc? Technology has failed me too many times at important points for me to rely on it too heavily.</p>
<p>If your handwriting sucks, I’d type.</p>
<p>I’m a big fan of handwriting and then retyping an abridged version as a tool for studying when an assessment is coming up. When I tried typing originally, I had less memory of what I wrote. Something about handwriting just works better in my mind, and I’ve found a lot of other people feel the same way.</p>
<p>Technology is cool, but don’t sacrifice academic success for that. If you do fine typing, fair enough. Many people don’t, though, so I’d recommend purchasing a device you can use for more than just note-taking (i.e. a laptop) so that it’s not a wasted cost if it turns out you want to go back to doing it the old way.</p>
<p>I have no idea how a handwriting app on a tablet works, of course, but it seems similar to signing when you pay with credit, which isn’t a great simulation of handwriting.</p>
<p>Another thing to consider is how much control you have over distractions. If you’re going to be playing around on the tablet, do the right thing and don’t bring it to class.</p>
<p>One last note: many professors require you to handwrite. It varies by school and by professor, but keep that in mind. I would say more professors have required it for me than those who allowed any kind of device. Plus, the way you take notes varies by class, so there’s that, too. I’d never do anything but handwriting for a math course, for example.</p>
<p>I handwrote my notes for my psych class and typed for bio. I remembered more for psych. with my laptop I had way too many distractions and handwriting helps to remember it better.</p>