How to take notes in lecture?

[stripes47]

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I'm starting my first year in August and I wanted to get a sense of how people take notes in class. Do most people use laptops, or do they hand write notes? Do you just write on slides that are given out, or follow along with past years notes?
And as for studying, will making flashcards be an endless waste of my time?

 

[Rogue Synapse]

I don't often take notes, but when I do, it's typically on the printed course packets they give us. That's what most of my classmates do, too. A few of us take notes on computer (vast minority) and one guy actually uses a tablet pc and writes directly on the powerpoints/pdfs. If you can actually keep that habit up and keep organized, using a laptop would seemingly be pretty beneficial.

 

[Ashers]

We typically get print outs of all lecture notes. I write down anything that the lecturer says that's left off. If the lecture notes are in outline form, I usually pre-type out the notes, then take notes on my computer, adding to the outline.

 

[Flopotomist]

The best person to ask questions like this would be an M2 at your school. Every school is a bit different. For example, my school (Loyola) distributes the lecturers notes, so you don't really have to take notes - you just can listen and jot down a thing or two here or there. Other schools have note taking services that you can subscribe to.

 

[browniegirl86]

It's definitely different at each school.

We have a printed syllabus with all the information for each lecture written in chapter form. I generally read the sections the day before, bring them with me to class, and add any other notes or diagrams onto the section during the lecture. That way, all the information is in one place when I need to go over it again. Plus I get in a second read of the syllabus during lecture.

 

[owlet]

I'm curious, for people who take notes on their laptops, how do you get diagrams, figures, etc.... in there. I guess I'm a nonlinear note taker and I don't see how I could use a computer effectively. How do you do it?

 

[Ashers]

I'm curious, for people who take notes on their laptops, how do you get diagrams, figures, etc.... in there. I guess I'm a nonlinear note taker and I don't see how I could use a computer effectively. How do you do it?

If i took notes on my laptop while the person was lecturing, I'd access the figures from the ppt or sometimes book website later. For 1 lecturer, I always had his slides on my computer, and I'd follow along because I pretyped his outline. If that wasn't possible, and I was just taking notes in class I'd leave space (perhaps with a brief description of the figure). Typically, I'd just take notes by hand in class, then retype and add in later.

 

[OncoCaP]

I'm curious, for people who take notes on their laptops, how do you get diagrams, figures, etc.... in there. I guess I'm a nonlinear note taker and I don't see how I could use a computer effectively. How do you do it?

I'm just starting med school, and so I'm answering your question based on my non-med school classes. I have a wacom USB tablet that I would take to lectures and draw any figures with. I'm avoiding tablet PCs for now because I consider them underpowered and relatively frail (and not exactly cheap). I'm putting off getting a Tablet until I start seeing patients for several hours per day.

Anyway, before class, I would copy or type the text into MS OneNote and insert any figures / slides. During lecture, I would type and copy / paste any comments / clarifications, type in potential test questions, and mark it up during class. I made sure that any figures / penart were in their own tab if at all possible so they don't move around which would mess up the alignment of call-outs during the cleanup stage. I would finalize my notes after class and e-mail a PDF to the prof for a disabled student, friends who missed class, etc. I like having everything on the laptop because I got tired of making hardcopies of everything. Plus, you can search for stuff instantly. If you use a laptop like this you must religiously back up your machine every day with a reliable program like MS Live OneCare (be sure and test the program (whatever you decide to get) by deleting a file or trying to restore onto another computer) because the machine will fail and you could lose everything. Most backup programs don't really work well in my opinion.

I'm not sure how I will refine this strategy for med school. I have gotten good use out of MindManager for my research and I might start using it to develop my own little practice tests during lectures because you can insert figures, labels and show/hide/mark stuff quickly and easily. Anyway, hope that helps.

 

[owlet]

I'm just starting med school, and so I'm answering your question based on my non-med school classes. I have a wacom USB tablet that I would take to lectures and draw any figures with. I'm avoiding tablet PCs for now because I consider them underpowered and relatively frail (and not exactly cheap). I'm putting off getting a Tablet until I start seeing patients for several hours per day.

Anyway, before class, I would copy or type the text into MS OneNote and insert any figures / slides. During lecture, I would type and copy / paste any comments / clarifications, type in potential test questions, and mark it up during class. I made sure that any figures / penart were in their own tab if at all possible so they don't move around which would mess up the alignment of call-outs during the cleanup stage. I would finalize my notes after class and e-mail a PDF to the prof for a disabled student, friends who missed class, etc. I like having everything on the laptop because I got tired of making hardcopies of everything. Plus, you can search for stuff instantly. If you use a laptop like this you must religiously back up your machine every day with a reliable program like MS Live OneCare (be sure and test the program (whatever you decide to get) by deleting a file or trying to restore onto another computer) because the machine will fail and you could lose everything. Most backup programs don't really work well in my opinion.

I'm not sure how I will refine this strategy for med school. I have gotten good use out of MindManager for my research and I might start using it to develop my own little practice tests during lectures because you can insert figures, labels and show/hide/mark stuff quickly and easily. Anyway, hope that helps.

Thanks Much!

 

[SanDiegoSOD]

I'm starting my first year in August and I wanted to get a sense of how people take notes in class. Do most people use laptops, or do they hand write notes? Do you just write on slides that are given out, or follow along with past years notes?
And as for studying, will making flashcards be an endless waste of my time?

Do whatever worked for you in the past, because seriously, med school is no different than undergrad, you've just got more to study.

 

[rhornblower]

I agree -- if you've got a good system that worked for you in undergrad, don't change it. I didn't take nearly as many notes in med school as undergrad though, mostly because the syllabus has everything I would need. I mostly just added stuff in the margins of the syllabus or on the backs of pages. Some people at my school have their syllabi spiral bound at Kinko's on the right side, so that when you're flipping through, the page you're reading is on the left and there's a blank page (the back of another page) on the right for easy right-handed note-taking. Very clever.

 

[MeowMix]

I actually had to completely change techniques from undergrad, and it took me about 6 months to figure out how to study in med school. There is much more memorization etc. than anything I ever saw as a chem major, and zero problem-solving. I ended up doing a lot more flash cards and drawing flow charts.

The most important thing is that everyone is different, and the techniques that are perfect for one person will not work at all for another. For example, several people in my class have photographic memory and can read the packet once or twice and know everything. I have to rewrite, draw, construct. Some people have to make pictures of everything. I never highlight. I rarely read textbooks. I prefer to do practice questions.

A very good book for this is Success Types for Medical Students:
http://www.ttuhsc.edu/SOM/Success/default.htm
Several friends who really struggled in first year eventually picked up these techniques and wished they had done so earlier. Read through the website and consider getting the book now, while you have time and interest. Practice some of the techniques and find out what you like. There is not much time once school starts.

 

[shivasHeroLike]

preview the material before lecture via notepacket or textbook

then when you go to class add in whatever the prof mentioned that wasn't mentioned in your source. i tend to highlight anything he spent time on or hinted towards an exam question.

 

[Coastie]

Don't go to class. Ever. Nearly every medical school now has either online streaming, audio recordings, or some sort of noteservice. Get the powerpoints from the professor, get the notes, and study on your own.

TRUST me on this.

POP Quiz:

When should a first or second year medical student go to class?

Answer: Never!

Question: If the medical student never goes to class, what will happen?

Answer: He/She will make better grades, have a tan, enjoy the gym and life more, and probably be AOA!

I'm starting my first year in August and I wanted to get a sense of how people take notes in class. Do most people use laptops, or do they hand write notes? Do you just write on slides that are given out, or follow along with past years notes?
And as for studying, will making flashcards be an endless waste of my time?

 

[Blanket]

Very good question...i really put some effort into answering this question during first semester and once i figured it out, my grades went up. Of course, it varies from school to school and class to class.

Examples....for anatomy, i only focused on clinically relevant part of lecture. All other stuff was details that i was gonna memorize anyways, so no reason making a note of that. But things that are not as obvious but relevant due to its clinical occurance are good to note because they are more likely to come up on shelf and lecture exams. You should be able to take similar approach with most of your classes. There will be info that you will have to know inside out. Skip noting this, instead make a note of stuff that is clinically relevant (or important in your professor´s eye).

 

[Dzeteo]

shelf and lecture exams.

What are 'shelf' exams?