Best way to take notes during dental school?

[tombradyschin]

Hey guys I'm a pre-dent and should be starting next year if all things go accordingly on december 1st. Was just wondering what dental students prefer to use to take notes with. I have a mac pro, but am thinking that it would be easier to buy a surface pro or an ipad and use a keyboard/stylus to take notes. What are your thoughts? How much storage space would I need on one of these tablets? Students taking written notes are basically extinct right?

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[CleverThought]

I tried the iPad thing for my first year of dental school, but it didn't really work out well for me. My handwriting is pretty sloppy as is and I couldn't keep up with the lecturers. So I just take notes in preview on my Mac. Works great for me.

Although, some of my classmates would say they love using a tablet.

Fwiw, my 16G iPad did the job the first year in terms of storage, but if you want something that has a lot of space for personal apps, I would think you need more than 16

 

[gentlerwave]

A lot of us use notability on Mac or iPad. I tried it on the iPad during the first year and switched to Mac this year - works great. Some of my friends also take notes on the surface

 

[CanaDMD]

I thought of all those ways too, but the thing that was easiest for me was taking notes in Ppt. So I do that!

 

[pilotdentist]

I use xodo docs to edit powerpoints that I convert to pdf format. Works well for windows operating systems. Ipad users do notability.

 

[okiedokeartichoke]

Does no one use the good ol' fashion paper and pen note-taking method anymore? ... That's how I did it all throughout undergrad. I either wrote notes in my notebook, or wrote notes by hand on the power point slides I printed out prior to class. Is the pace of dental school lectures too much information to bear through with hand writing alone?

 

[LaughingGas]

Does no one use the good ol' fashion paper and pen note-taking method anymore? ... That's how I did it all throughout undergrad. I either wrote notes in my notebook, or wrote notes by hand on the power point slides I printed out prior to class. Is the pace of dental school lectures too much information to bear through with hand writing alone?

Just to give you an idea. 1 hour lecture typed word for word usually ends up being about 7 pages single spaced.

 

[okiedokeartichoke]

Just to give you an idea. 1 hour lecture typed word for word usually ends up being about 7 pages single spaced.

Ah, that sounds reminiscent of this genetics course I took. I typed out pretty much everything the professor said aloud, word by word, and it did come out to 7-10 pages long typed, single-space. That was the only course I ever had to whip out my laptop in class to type notes pretty much. He was like a computer. There were no power points, barely any overheads, no videos. Just a handout of a very, very simple outline and a dry lecture of him standing at the front of the classroom and just spitting out information. Very intelligent man, but hard to keep up with.

You take notes the same way, though? Typing what the lecturer says verbatim the entire lecture? I'd imagine with the powerpoints it wouldn't have to be that way since there are details within the ppt, no?

 

[CanaDMD]

Does no one use the good ol' fashion paper and pen note-taking method anymore? ... That's how I did it all throughout undergrad. I either wrote notes in my notebook, or wrote notes by hand on the power point slides I printed out prior to class. Is the pace of dental school lectures too much information to bear through with hand writing alone?

Used to do that too. Not only is the pace much different, but you'll also have so much more notes that it'll become tough to carry around all the time. Switching over to laptop is a transition, trust me I know, but it's worth it.

I can't imagine having written down all these things by hand.

 

[LaughingGas]

@okiedokeartichoke the powerpoint merely just gives us an outline. I mean this is highly dependent on class and school, but our cut off for A- is 91% and for an A is 96%. Just to pass a class, we can study just what is on the slide and not go to the lecture. If you want to do well, you have to go above and beyond . There are instances that we get tested that was not on the slide, but the professor said it very briefly. It is very time consuming so I started separating the task with others and share few days before each exam.
By having everything verbatim it is easier to understand the flow of the content and if the exam key contradicts what the professor had said, you can always argue for those points.

 

[okiedokeartichoke]

@CanaDMD, @LaughingGas - Ah, okay. Gotcha! Thanks for the responses. Typing the notes out seems more efficient anyways, or else I'd be susceptible to some major hand cramps by the end of lecture due to the fast pace and volume of content being delivered. I would probably end up with sloppy written notes that I'd type out anyway because they weren't legible in the first place

Do you record the lectures so you don't miss anything?

 

[CanaDMD]

@CanaDMD, @LaughingGas - Ah, okay. Gotcha! Thanks for the responses. Typing the notes out seems more efficient anyways, or else I'd be susceptible to some major hand cramps by the end of lecture due to the fast pace and volume of content being delivered. I would probably end up with sloppy written notes that I'd type out anyway because they weren't legible in the first place

Do you record the lectures so you don't miss anything?

Haha, tried doing it at first. But honestly, you don't have time to relisten to the lectures. So what I now do is if I miss something the prof said, I ask a friend for his notes and he does the same - that way if I miss something, I get it, and if he misses something, he gets it.

And if I still don't feel satisfied, I ask the prof to reexplain the point he was making that I missed.

 

[dante72]

i tried to use my samsung note 10.1 2014 edition didn't like it, back to use old paper
but i might used a bad application , any idea?

 

[charlestweed]

IMO, the best way is to let your classmates take notes for you. With note available for every lecture, you don’t need to show up for every class and use the time you save to rest, or study, or do lab work. I was very lucky to attend a P/F dental school, where the students helped each other to pass classes, instead of competing against each other. We elected a note pool chair and that chair person assigned each student in our class to take note for the entire class. For the entire quarter, I only had to take notes once or twice and the rest were done by my classmates. We each had to pay $20-25 per quarter for copying cost. I think every school should organize something like this to help the students save time.

 

[dante72]

IMO, the best way is to let your classmates take notes for you. With note available for every lecture, you don’t need to show up for every class and use the time you save to rest, or study, or do lab work. I was very lucky to attend a P/F dental school, where the students helped each other to pass classes, instead of competing against each other. We elected a note pool chair and that chair person assigned each student in our class to take note for the entire class. For the entire quarter, I only had to take notes once or twice and the rest were done by my classmates. We each had to pay $20-25 per quarter for copying cost. I think every school should organize something like this to help the students save time.

man you are lucky ...
my classmates don't help at all i mean they don't even show at time or sleep during the lectures
if you want a note for exams you have to do it all by yourself ...