Students - how do you take notes?

[Aunt Spiker]

If you don't underline or highlight in your textbook - how do you take notes effectively?

I've tried hand-writing but that takes forever and my writing is so bad I can't even read it.
I've tried typing out notes and thoughts on computer - which is quicker - but limited to having computer access.
I'm best when I can underline and jot in the margins.

 

[rivrrat]

If you don't underline or highlight in your textbook - how do you take notes effectively?

I've tried hand-writing but that takes forever and my writing is so bad I can't even read it.
I've tried typing out notes and thoughts on computer - which is quicker - but limited to having computer access.
I'm best when I can underline and jot in the margins.

I *always* handwrote mine. pages and pages and pages of them. Why? Because that's how my memory works best. If I write it, I remember it. In some cases, I would quite literally, rewrite a whole chapter in my notebook.

What you could do, though, is record the lecture and make notes afterwards on the computer - if that's what you're taking notes on.

 

[Slartibartfast]

If you don't underline or highlight in your textbook - how do you take notes effectively?

I've tried hand-writing but that takes forever and my writing is so bad I can't even read it.
I've tried typing out notes and thoughts on computer - which is quicker - but limited to having computer access.
I'm best when I can underline and jot in the margins.

I tend to write down the main points to jog my memory. I am pretty good at remembering the lecture verbatim, but sometimes I need a reference point.

 

[Kernel Sanders]

I never took notes - the material was always in the lecture slides/book. If neither of those I just remembered it.

Then I got real job - started having meetings with customers - and couldn't remember any of what was discussed :-O

Now I just jot down quick notes in my impossible to read handwriting

 

[jallman]

If you don't underline or highlight in your textbook - how do you take notes effectively?

I've tried hand-writing but that takes forever and my writing is so bad I can't even read it.
I've tried typing out notes and thoughts on computer - which is quicker - but limited to having computer access.
I'm best when I can underline and jot in the margins.

I draw a line down the left side of the paper and a cross line about 6 lines up from the bottom.

I write random notes during class in the large block. I jot down questions about the notes on the left side margin and when I get home, I pull out the main points and write them neatly in the bottom space I marked off.

 

[justabubba]

being from the era of the mimeograph, slide rules, and admonishments to never, ever write in a text, i took lots of handwritten notes
like riverrat, i am a visual learner and could not comprehend the verbal lecture information unless i had transcribed it in real time
other than higher math, i never read my notes after writing them, not even for tests ... the writing of the notes was enough to acquire an adequate command of the subject

if underlining and jotting notes in the margins works for you, then stay with that. if it's not broken, don't break it

 

[Aunt Spiker]

My Mom suggested I learn shorthand if/when I hand write lengthy outlines (like for history - I do this - that's the only way I can keep it straight but time is precious and my writing is *sooo* damn sloppy)

Anyone do shorthand for this purpose?