Taking Notes with Laptops

<p>Do most students take notes on their laptops or by hand?</p>

<p>by hand. But then again, I took mainly science & math courses. Typing out all those formula's & equations is much much much slower than hand writing them.</p>

<p>I agree, by hand. Though I also take mostly science courses.</p>

<p>I've seen more laptops in the humanities/social science classes I took. But that's not saying a lot. Maybe 3 or 4 people in a 150-200 person lecture.</p>

<p>That few people take notes on a laptop?!? I was planning on bringing mine everyday in a messenger bag to take notes, but I don't want to drive everyone else crazy with the keyboard noise...</p>

<p>Yeah, pretty much no one takes notes on a laptop, its just not that practical, if a professor has powerpoints, he will sometimes just post them online for you to download. And plus, if your campus has good Wifi, you'll prolly just end up surfing the internet rather than paying attention to class.</p>

<p>I took notes on my laptop in my humanities classes.</p>

<p>does anyone finding the keyboard annoying in class, and if so would the professor ban it</p>

<p>I hope not :-&lt;/p>

<p>My keyboard is pretty quiet. (Using a Macbook)</p>

<p>I use my laptop to take notes in most of my history courses, which are pretty much lecture based. I type faster than I handwrite and for a history course it's pretty important to be detail-specific.</p>

<p>probably about 20% of the people in my humanities classes take notes (/surf the internet) on computers.</p>

<p>Alot of people at USC take notes by laptops. However, i find them really distracting to have with me in class. I'll end up surfing facebook, aiming, etc or whatever.</p>

<p>I use mine for taking notes in history type classes. I type 90-100 wpm, but I definitely can't write that fast. </p>

<p>I don't find the keyboard distracting--usually it's the goons at the back of the room having a conversation that are distracting.</p>

<p>^I'm the same as you. That and when I start to doze off, I'm still typing and my penmanship does not get messy. My notes do not become messy (as opposed to writing them out and scribbling).</p>

<p>it should also depend what type of class you're in. if it's a huge lecture hall, I don't think there's anything wrong with a laptop. but if it's a smaller seminar type class or something like that, a laptop will just be a distraction and annoy people around you.</p>

<p>In my math and science classes, no one uses a laptop. In my history-type classes, about 10-20% use laptops.</p>

<p>I personally always use my laptop to take notes in my history-type classes. I type much faster than I can write, and when I write quickly, it's hard to read. Plus, I can type while looking at the board or at the professor, and if I try to do that while writing, I don't write in a straight line. It's also nice to be able to go back and add notes from readings, etc. later.</p>

<p>My keyboard is kinda loud, but no one has complained yet. And even in a smaller seminar type class, people use laptops. As long as you pay attention and don't go on facebook and such (you don't have to constantly be doing something on your laptop, even if it is there), it's not a distraction. In fact, when we're discussing something I don't really need to take notes on, I tend to close my laptop.</p>

<p>Oh, and some professors don't allow laptops due to people getting distracted, but most at my school don't seem to have a problem with it.</p>

<p>In my math classes no one uses a lap top and there is a small amount of people in my sciences classes that use one. I notice them more in humanities and such.</p>