Handwriting notes in med school

[applesauce14]

Incoming MS1 here. I am a big fan of handwritten notes. I wrote all my notes with pencil and paper throughout high school and college. Everyone is warning me that med school is different and encouraging me to purchase an iPad or tablet for notes instead. However, not only do I not want to invest in an iPad write now, but I honestly just love handwriting my notes, and I don't want to stop! How many of you handwrite vs use an iPad/tablet? Do you agree with what others have been saying (that handwriting notes in med school is not feasible?) Or do you think it is ok if this is what I prefer? Would you say most students in your class have an iPad? Any advice/recommendations would be greatly appreciated!

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[Dr. Vinnie Boombatz]

I just completed pre-clinical handwriting notes exclusively. Most everyone I know takes notes on his or her computer or iPad, however. The investment in an iPad wasn't a factor since my school gives everyone one. Pros: it was what I was used to and I feel it's easier to remember something if I wright it down and I never have to pause to remember how to draw an arrow or bullet point something. Cons: No ctrl+f, I probably spent well over $150 on notebooks and I've developed some wicked writer's calluses on my hand. There were a few days in which I had to stop taking notes early because I was having trouble holding my pen. Overall, I think it would've been much easier to type my notes, but handwriting worked well for me. Do whatever makes you more comfortable.

 

[TragicalDrFaust]

I don't have an iPad and do just fine. Personally study by making outlines on notion or a paper notebook and using it as a template to quiz myself.

I will say I had to cut down a lot on note taking during medical school. It took too much time for me and I realized I never actually looked at the notes I took. It's possible a small minority of people learn best by taking notes but most people retain more using active strategies like practice questions, Feynman technique or flashcards/anki. Good luck.

 

[Ho0v-man]

I used to hand write everything as well. I went two months into med school before I called it quits. My hand was in agony.

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

How would an iPad be any faster than handwriting?

 

[ciestar]

Are you the type that writes everything on a slide down or are you printing out the ppt and notating? It is really hard to do the former.

 

[CyrilFiggis]

You’ll figure out your best strategy. If you hand write quickly, it can work.

 

[CanIBeAnonymous]

You do what works for you.

I haven't written a singular thing in over 2 years for example. That works for me. If handwriting works for you, do it up.

 

[Billiam95]

Incoming MS1 here. I am a big fan of handwritten notes. I wrote all my notes with pencil and paper throughout high school and college. Everyone is warning me that med school is different and encouraging me to purchase an iPad or tablet for notes instead. However, not only do I not want to invest in an iPad write now, but I honestly just love handwriting my notes, and I don't want to stop! How many of you handwrite vs use an iPad/tablet? Do you agree with what others have been saying (that handwriting notes in med school is not feasible?) Or do you think it is ok if this is what I prefer? Would you say most students in your class have an iPad? Any advice/recommendations would be greatly appreciated!

Bought an iPad MS1 to make notes and stopped using it after 1 or 2 months - waste of money. If you want to try to keep hand writing notes, go for it for the first block or 2, but I think you'll quickly realize why most advise against it - it takes too much time and subtracts time you could be using for active learning.

 

[ChymeofPassion]

Used notability on an iPad, helps so much for ctrl F, notation with apple pencil

 

[PTPuser]

I annotate the PPT and add what is stressed / important. I then study just from ppt. Worked out so far.

 

[TelemarketingEnigma]

I handwrote most of my notes in med school, but as others have said you may need to adjust how much/why you write if you want to keep up with the volume. For me handwriting was never really about going back and reading my notes, but the process of writing things down helped me ingrain them in my brain (typing never worked the same). so sometimes my notes just ended up being gibberish lists of key phrases from lecture that i wanted to commit to memory or felt important based on what the lecturer said. you will not have time to write every single thing down from the slide (and the slides are usually provided to you anyway so theres no point).

i was a notebook person, but lots of people like writing directly on the slides. ipads + apple pencil can be nice for that so you don't have to print out a whole tree. there are some ipad apps that allow you to search your handwritten notes too, or turn the handwriting into text, though i never really made use of them for med school purposes.

 

[operaman]

I was a handwritten note guy. My school would print out all the ppt slides for each block of lectures. I would take them and have them spiral bound at kinkos and then make notes right on them or in the margins.

That, anki, and some assorted boards resources seemed to work well for me. I know iPad would give me searchability, but as much as I studied I knew where everything was so I didn’t need it.

 

[DarkBluMage]

How would an iPad be any faster than handwriting?

Typing notes onto slides is faster than handwriting

 

[Redpancreas]

You wont be able to write everything down from scratch. Just bring out the PPTs and annotate them. Don't make it too complicated.

1.) Attend lecture.
2.) Make some notes.
3.) Test yourself on material: Do ANKI, make tables, organize information differently, write it out from memory on a white board, etc.
4.) Take a practice test.
5.) Succeed.

 

[wholeheartedly]

Not necessarily faster with regards to actually taking notes, but as someone who also struggled with the transition to handwriting note outlines and such in class --> med school, one of the challenges with handwritten notes in medical school is the sheer volume. Very nice to have an electronic version where you can easily tab through sections, ctrl+f, etc. as you review.

ETA: and don't have literally dozens of binders of notes to keep around lol

I can’t speak to medical school, but for grad school I took my handwritten notes and scanned them into pdf format with a little document scanner so I could get the retention of handwriting but still have easily portable copies on my ipad and laptop. It was really slick, especially since epi and biostats have a lot of equations and worked problems. Doc scanner was $199 I think (fugi scansnap) and very fast like 50 pages in just a couple min. There are some programs that can read handwriting and convert to text and you can also add tags and keywords.

For anyone using an ipad & apple pencil, you can get a ipad screen cover that feels more like paper & allows you to write or draw better. I put one on for my art/sketching and really like it for that. I haven’t tried intensive note taking with it.

 

[applesauce14]

Thank you for your insight everyone! I plan to start the semester handwriting my notes and see how it goes!

 

[PhD_to_DO]

Incoming MS1 here. I am a big fan of handwritten notes. I wrote all my notes with pencil and paper throughout high school and college. Everyone is warning me that med school is different and encouraging me to purchase an iPad or tablet for notes instead. However, not only do I not want to invest in an iPad write now, but I honestly just love handwriting my notes, and I don't want to stop! How many of you handwrite vs use an iPad/tablet? Do you agree with what others have been saying (that handwriting notes in med school is not feasible?) Or do you think it is ok if this is what I prefer? Would you say most students in your class have an iPad? Any advice/recommendations would be greatly appreciated!

Its about personal preferences. Plenty of my classmates hand write all of their notes. Others of us us iPads and some type everything. I tried paper and pen, but it didn’t feel efficient to me so I bought an iPad and now annotate directly on my PowerPoints. I do handwritten summaries on my iPad as well. Do what works best for you.

 

[ujsc]

Thank you for your insight everyone! I plan to start the semester handwriting my notes and see how it goes!

If you handwrite your classes on iPad, at least you will have an electronic index system you can access easily.

 

[Rapsidy]

As an older student who never got into apple products iPads or MacBooks I use my Microsoft surface pro for my notes. I like to take screen shots from pathoma and B and B and write anything extra around the slides I need on the surface pro screen.

Using one note makes it easy to find any material I may need to review. But again, I’m old and probably would struggle greatly on anything outside of Microsoft.