what do you bring to class?

[ABSOLUTsher07]

This question popped into my head as I was browsing the backpack thread. I never really had to bring textbooks with me to class in college, so I haven't toted around a huge backpack since high school. Are books normally needed for lecture in med school, or can you get away with taking really good notes and bringing lecture printouts and a laptop? Any other interesting things you guys recommend packing along? Thanks.


*Sometimes I wish I never discovered studentdoctor.net. It has made me into a neurotic person who makes posts such as this ~hangs head in shame~

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[shivasHeroLike]

i bring my laptop.
a lot of pencils/highlighters/pens
paper
1-2 textbooks (if i plan on stayin in school after class to study)

 

[Ashers]

i bring my laptop.
a lot of pencils/highlighters/pens
paper
1-2 textbooks (if i plan on stayin in school after class to study)

Agree with above + snacks (granola bars/nutrigrain type bars/etc) and a water bottle + caffeine source (sometimes a mug of tea in the morning/soda after lunch -- dept on how tired/cold I was. Tea is a necessity in the winter)

 

[deleted86048]

the copy of the lecture notes (either in binder or spiral form), a lab manual if needed that day, some extra paper, lots of pens, a snack, lunch, occasionally a textbook, and white coat/stethoscope as needed.

 

[vhawk]

We have lockers at school, so I bring a lot of stuff. I bring every book I'll need for studying and a whole bunch of other stuff. Then I bring pretty much nothing to class, leave it all in the locker. Basically, the syllabus and a pen, and coffee.

 

[tae1703]

pillow.

no wait that was undergrad

 

[psipsina]

I think books can be necessary. Definitely atlases and at least review books. I think most of us end up studying while at school so we bring stuff both for lecture (if you go to lecture at all) in addition to study stuff.

Here's whats in my backpack:
Laptop and assorted cables
Ipod and earphones
PDA (aka my brain)
Earplugs
Pens/highlighters
File folder with to-be-done notesets and some lined paper
Textbooks (usually 1-3)
Water bottle
Snacks/Lunch

 

[Hayden2102]

Psipsina you must have a very big/full backpack!

 

[deleted77919]

I live inside my school (hooray) and thus just bring paper and pencil to class. But then when I go to the study spaces we have I'll carry a lot of books. During anatomy it was not unusual for me to carry Big Moore, Netter, Rohen's, my note set, class notes, 1L of water, and my laptop. Needless to say I had a serious need for storage in my backpack.

I'd take my messenger bag (from Rothco) to lecture but my old school LL Bean to the study spaces we have around here.

 

[shivasHeroLike]

lol. jeez ^

netters alone is a pain to carry around.

 

[jonb12997]

when I was in class (start rotations next month, hallelujiah), assuming we didn't have a printed note packet for the lecturer, I would take notes on my computer, then print them out to study before the test. After classes, like at lunch, I would run over the library with my thumb drive and print my notes on the high speed printer, that being said, I would usually bring the following to class:

my laptop and charger, water bottle with crystal light/instant iced tea packets, some sort of snack, a big (2-3 inch) binder to keep class notes separated and organized, lots of pens and highlighters in case the notes were provided, my ipod, and for the systems in 2nd year, I would have a book that I printed and bound at staples with the disease objectives. Other than that, occationally if I was going to have some extra time to study during the day between classes, I would bring my clemente, harrison's (2 version), or some other medium sized textbook with me, but I very rarely brought textbooks with me to class, they usually stayed at home where I did most of my studying.

 

[browniegirl86]

Syllabus sections for the week.
Bag of colored pens and highlighters.
Water.
Diet Coke.
Breakfast.
Phone/keys/wallet/etc.
Gym bag.

I should mention that we don't really use textbooks (the only one I own besides Netter's is the Blumenfeld Neuroanatomy, which was "strongly recommended").

 

[funkless]

Flask full of goodness

 

[enlightenedhick]

Laptop to type notes into PowerPoint. Swaetshirt from the AC.

 

[Medica2010]

well this is just me but... well i like to be prepared

syllabus in my trusty binder
highlighters (variety of hues)
blue pens
some kind of snack
COFFEE
cell phone
money to buy more COFFEE
my planner (sometimes i write more stuff in here than I do in my notes)

i only ever bring my laptop when the professor has a reputation for giving sparse notes, or if i look at the powerpoints and they are just a bunch of pictures with no text on them... (or if the lecture seems like it's going to be really boring, that way i can cruise the internet during the lulls)

 

[njbmd]

As soon as I had obtained the syllabi and texts for my courses for the semester, I would removed the bindings from these items, punch three-holes (Kinkos will do this for a nominal charge) and clip them into binders.

Each evening, I would prepare for my next day's lectures by placing the text pages of interest, my reading notes, the syllabus objectives and some blank pages for written notes, into my "Daily Study & Note Book. This notebook, which I carried to class daily only contained 20 to 30 pages for the day.

I would have a section for each class of the day that included the above. When I got to lecture, I would place any handouts in the section for each class and take notes on the handout. If there was a Powerpoint Lecture, I would download that to my laptop and take notes on the lecture slides paying attention to the keys in the objectives. I would print these out and place them with my notes in my subject note books at home. I would return the text pages to their notebooks.

When I arrived at home (or the library), I would study my syllabus pages, my lecture notes and my text pages as needed to master the material. I would review a weeks worth of lectures each weekend and prepare for the upcoming week.

At the end of the semester, I had subject notebooks filled with notes and handouts for each class. When I was done with the year, I passed these along to my advisee along with old exams etc. (He was grateful that I was so anal and organized).

I never carried whole textbooks to class. For example for Gross Anatomy for the day, I carried photocopies of the Netter Plates that I needed, pages from Baby Moore that covered the lecture, the syllabus objectives. When I got to class, I would add any handouts to that notebook and the Powerpoint slides that I downloaded. This would be my study materials for the evening along with any class notes.

For Gross Lab: I would make lists of structures for each lab and check off as I found them. I would again, take photocopies of the Netter plates for each lab. I would write little notes to guide my review when I came back in the evening to study on my own.

In my backpack, I would carry:

• My Daily Study & Notebook
• My Travel Coffee Mug
• A pen with four colors (Bic)
• My sweatshirt (chilly in the AC)
• My Easy Reader Book Stand (doubled as a clipboard)
• Four highlighters in different colors.
• My digital tape recorder
• My laptop computer for downloads

 

[francisdoss]

This question popped into my head as I was browsing the backpack thread. I never really had to bring textbooks with me to class in college, so I haven't toted around a huge backpack since high school. Are books normally needed for lecture in med school, or can you get away with taking really good notes and bringing lecture printouts and a laptop? Any other interesting things you guys recommend packing along? Thanks.


*Sometimes I wish I never discovered studentdoctor.net. It has made me into a neurotic person who makes posts such as this ~hangs head in shame~

I'm still questioning if I should bring myself to class on a regular basis unless it is mandatory....

 

[Flaxmoore]

- Recorder for backup in case the provided recordings suck
- Laptop (breaks at the very least, additions to ppt)
- Binder with the handouts
- Pencils (about 8- I take huge amounts of notes)
- Water

 

[tulane06]

Rope, duct tape, mace, claw hammer

 

[CigarTragic]

I see some people are packing quite a bit for class. Is note-taking really that extreme in med school where you need 29 pens, signal flares, inflatible raft, canteen, machete, and a box of Crayola crayons with the special crayon sharpener included?

I'm picturing myself just carrying a binder with notes and a pen/pencil. Maybe one hi-liter.

 

[Law2Doc]

Rope, duct tape, mace, claw hammer

Can't go wrong with this list. Sounds like the trunk of my car. A shovel also comes in handy.

But seriously, bring the applicable portion of your note-set/lecture notes (in paper or computer format), your laptop, max strength NSAIDs, visine, something caffeinated, a pen, and maybe a snack. Should hold you.

 

[Ashers]

I see some people are packing quite a bit for class. Is note-taking really that extreme in med school where you need 29 pens, signal flares, inflatible raft, canteen, machete, and a box of Crayola crayons with the special crayon sharpener included?

I'm picturing myself just carrying a binder with notes and a pen/pencil. Maybe one hi-liter.

I actually used a box of ~60 colored pencils with a specil pencil sharpener included (with my pens and high lighters). That was more M1 year than M2 though. M2 year I stuck with the different colors of G2 gel pens.

Sometimes a Swiss Champ does come in handy.

 

[Pontifex Maximus]

Pens, printed slides, laptop. That's about it.

 

[owlet]

Rope, duct tape, mace, claw hammer

Need a towel too.

 

[-Goose-]

Need a towel too.

Don't forget the 40 gallon garbage bags.



... creeps.

 

[-Goose-]

As soon as I had obtained the syllabi and texts for my courses for the semester, I would removed the bindings from these items, punch three-holes (Kinkos will do this for a nominal charge) and clip them into binders.

Each evening, I would prepare for my next day's lectures by placing the text pages of interest, my reading notes, the syllabus objectives and some blank pages for written notes, into my "Daily Study & Note Book. This notebook, which I carried to class daily only contained 20 to 30 pages for the day.

I would have a section for each class of the day that included the above. When I got to lecture, I would place any handouts in the section for each class and take notes on the handout. If there was a Powerpoint Lecture, I would download that to my laptop and take notes on the lecture slides paying attention to the keys in the objectives. I would print these out and place them with my notes in my subject note books at home. I would return the text pages to their notebooks.

When I arrived at home (or the library), I would study my syllabus pages, my lecture notes and my text pages as needed to master the material. I would review a weeks worth of lectures each weekend and prepare for the upcoming week.

At the end of the semester, I had subject notebooks filled with notes and handouts for each class. When I was done with the year, I passed these along to my advisee along with old exams etc. (He was grateful that I was so anal and organized).

I never carried whole textbooks to class. For example for Gross Anatomy for the day, I carried photocopies of the Netter Plates that I needed, pages from Baby Moore that covered the lecture, the syllabus objectives. When I got to class, I would add any handouts to that notebook and the Powerpoint slides that I downloaded. This would be my study materials for the evening along with any class notes.

For Gross Lab: I would make lists of structures for each lab and check off as I found them. I would again, take photocopies of the Netter plates for each lab. I would write little notes to guide my review when I came back in the evening to study on my own.

In my backpack, I would carry:

• My Daily Study & Notebook
• My Travel Coffee Mug
• A pen with four colors (Bic)
• My sweatshirt (chilly in the AC)
• My Easy Reader Book Stand (doubled as a clipboard)
• Four highlighters in different colors.
• My digital tape recorder
• My laptop computer for downloads

NJBMD, we all love you and I have no doubt that you are a badass mo-fo on the wards and the or, but... you must have been the most anal med student ever.

 

[SoCuteMD]

See, this implies that I went to class.

When I went I usually took paper and pen. If it was bound to be a really boring class and was not being tested, I brought my laptop.

 

[gallbladder2]

a pillow so I can sleep
the classes are recorded a someone is paid to take notes anyway

 

[Shredder]

I used to bring my laptop and follow along with slides. I never took notes. Then I took to browsing the internet. Then I started sleeping in and never went to class anymore.

 

[sendwich]

I used to bring my laptop and follow along with slides. I never took notes. Then I took to browsing the internet. Then I started sleeping in and never went to class anymore.

jah, know what you mean. it's ONLY 1st week and i'm already tempted to skip out of classes. we have video streaming of lectures so it's not that big a deal but everyone is still pretty gunnerish that i haven't admitited this to my classmates (yet).

 

[63768]

tablet pc + cords. done.

 

[drdr2010]

Coffee!!! Did someone say that already? I think thats the most important thing for class...at least if you want to be awake to take notes with your arsenal of colored pens/pencils/highlighters anyway.

Someone else mentioned cutting the binding off books. I took my Netter to Kinkos, had the binding cut and all the pages hole punched (took like 5 minutes and they put it in a binder for me too!). It was seriously the best $5 I spent all of M1. I would put just the pages for the region we were studying in my binder with my other class notes. Then, whenever I had free time between classes (or was bored during embyro or biochem lecture) I could study anatomy. And I didn't have to carry around that giant book.