saving old notes - do I really need them?

Bonfire away!

I think even today I have my undergrad notes (somewhere) from:

histology
bacteriology
mammalian endocrinology
embryology
meat/carcass evaluation manual
and one pathetic, badly abused, periodic table ripped from some lab manual back cover. It passed through at least 3 generations of G. CHEM students hands before I inherited it, including notes/remarks. I just can't bring myself to throw it away...

I think I kept these particular notes because (1) they were bound and (2) because of all the diagrams/images I drew painstakingly and lovingly filled in with at least four colors...

I do remember breaking out the histology and bac-T notes at least a couple times in vet school to clarify something from lecture that wasn't presented in great detail 1st/2nd year.

I've referenced the meat book for work.

Still have about 50% of my veterinary school notes, too. Took about three years before I threw the first set out. VERY hard to do because it is the only tangible thing besides a diploma to account for four years of your life...

While I don't use them per se, I've found they are a very handy resource for technician/assistant teaching/training material. Especially surgery lab/anesthesia/public health/immunology notes.

I'm a huge packrat when it comes to old notes. I just can't seem to get rid of them! I've finally organized them into series of huge white 3 ring binders, which I have to admit look kind of cool on my shelves. They have come in handy, especially the upper division classes.

One thing you might think about is scanning the notes you are most worried about giving up onto a CD, and then you will have them in an electronic form forever! (And you can still have the huge bonfire!)

clawsbeatskin said:

One thing you might think about is scanning the notes you are most worried about giving up onto a CD, and then you will have them in an electronic form forever! (And you can still have the huge bonfire!)

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That is a great idea!!!

clawsbeatskin said:

I'm a huge packrat when it comes to old notes. I just can't seem to get rid of them!

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ahem...this will be MUCH easier when you have to move...

burn baby burn

Haha! I am SO glad someone asked this. I have been thinking about this as well. I suck at throwing out anything, especially notes.

Ohhhh my current dilemma too! Our uni gave us a lot of our subject handbooks on a CD, which is good, but I still have lots of papers I can't seem to turf!

after i was done with physics my friends and i got ourselves a case of beer and some lighter fluid... it was such a magical night

One more vote for

Another vote for torching them! I saved stuff along the way in undergrad that I thought would be useful in the future.... 4 years into the future now and I've NEVER ONCE looked at them, and I can safely say I never will.

(unless it's some unique tidbit or story that you want to remember)

I'll just throw in my .02 that I HAVE looked at some of my undergrad notes....my undergrad biochem, physiology, and especially cell biology...so I'm glad I didn't throw them out!

Back to cramming....

As others have said - this was on my mind as well. I asked 2 friends of mine, one who goes to Purdue (first year) and someone who went to UG with me, same major, etc and is a second year at Tufts, and both said chuck most of it! I also save everything so i have yet to go through with it - but i also have yet to unpack from graduating in may o)!!

I will probably save anything that is well organized, clean etc, but throw away all my general class notes and stuff. Somehow i feel my colorcoded neuroanatomy notes, and collections of pathways from that and anatomy of vision may someday be useful!

All that paper gone to waste?

I always save my notes, but never really go back to them. So I would suggest getting rid of them, but recycling them instead of torching everything and adding to the pollution in the air too.

I think I'm going to save a few select classes worth of notes. Really, only classes that I had superb professors in that would actually be worth saving... This would include Metabolic pathways, histology (for sure!), cell biology... that's probably about it! My endocrinology notes would be helpful, but that professor was so scatterbrained that I'm not sure how much it would help. At least those are on my computer and aren't taking up space.

Oh, I can't wait to throw everything out! I've been keeping everything, even my calculus and stats notes... I even still have my Anatomy and Biochem notes from high school! Everything else I'll probably recycle, but the physics notes are going straight into the fireplace once this semester is over, because I hate it that much!

LOL, Lailanni!

I'm keeping all of my chemistry books and notes (but I only learned to take good notes my senior year-ish).

I am burning a BOOK though: Atkin's Physical Chemistry. I am even planning on reserving a spot at a local park. I'll throw in all of my 1,000 notes, printed out online lessons, and all of the extra material I was hoping would make me understand quantum. --didn't happen. I hate that book HATE IT! So yeah, it can tell me all about entropy calculations and photoelectric effects because it's going to be hot not only because of the fire, but also because of where that book is going in its afterlife.

P.S. maybe have "The roof is on fire" chorus by Bloodhound gang playing in the background.

I wasted waaaaaaaaay too much time making these beautiful anatomy flash cards by hand, and I couldn't bear to throw them out, so I located a random first year to give them to.

Just chiming in...

If you haven't gotten into a vet school yet (my apologies if you have, I just don't follow the board that much anymore..) you may want to save them until then at least.

Personally a few of my classmates and I have found need for them since we are attending vet school in Australia and can get exemptions from courses. The catch for at least biochemistry is that they wanted to see your labs, coursework, etc in addition to the syllabus and course description.

I hear ya about saving Histology! I have a huge tupperware container with pictures of slides, note cards, notes that I know I'll use when I start vet school in the fall! Plus, I look at succeeding in histo like a war wound I'm proud to have.. Other than that....bye bye physics........

shuvball1 said:

I think I'm going to save a few select classes worth of notes. Really, only classes that I had superb professors in that would actually be worth saving... This would include Metabolic pathways, histology (for sure!), cell biology... that's probably about it! My endocrinology notes would be helpful, but that professor was so scatterbrained that I'm not sure how much it would help. At least those are on my computer and aren't taking up space.

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I sa the big smiley and just thought of one thing:


"Fire, fire, hehehe, heheheh, FIRE!!!"

Any Bevis and Butthead people out there that remeber this??

Hey philo,
I remember!

VetMed555 said:

LOL, Lailanni!

I'm keeping all of my chemistry books and notes (but I only learned to take good notes my senior year-ish).

I am burning a BOOK though: Atkin's Physical Chemistry. I am even planning on reserving a spot at a local park. I'll throw in all of my 1,000 notes, printed out online lessons, and all of the extra material I was hoping would make me understand quantum. --didn't happen. I hate that book HATE IT! So yeah, it can tell me all about entropy calculations and photoelectric effects because it's going to be hot not only because of the fire, but also because of where that book is going in its afterlife.

P.S. maybe have "The roof is on fire" chorus by Bloodhound gang playing in the background.

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Oh. Yes. I've enjoyed just about every science topic I've taken as an undergrad, but I HATE Physical Chemistry. Loved Biochemistry, enjoyed Analytical Chem, but I can't stand this class. There's not much else that can reduce me from a hardworking A student to someone who would take a C in that class tomorrow if it meant being done with it. I might try to sell the book to some other poor sod via Amazon though.