Is taking notes a waste of time?

[harkkam]

I've noted that taking notes has become a waste of time for me. Does anyone else feel that way?

I am reading the EK bio book and I decided okay let me take some notes and I ended up spending 3 hours just writing notes and after those three hours I couldn't even remember what I wrote down an hour ago.

Im begining to doubt the usefulness of notes other than maybe having a small sheet of facts that one is likely to forget or is spread out through the review text and instead is easier to access in list format when making notes.

In the end ALL the material has to be in your HEAD. Everything has to be up there in your head, wouldn't re-reading the chapter OVER and over again be better?

Reading it until you can recite everything from memory, concepts or terms or what have you.

What do you guys think?

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[AG22]

Hi, I believe I can offer some insight into this 🙂

Initially, I too was taking notes. I made notes for physics, chemistry, and orgo, as I would read the chapter. Then I realised that instead of just noting down what I felt was important, I started getting tired in say 20 minutes (with the super long chapters) and so I found I was writing down pretty much everything! Which to be honest, shouldn't be how notes are made.

By the time I got to BIO, I gave up note-taking, & instead underlined and used post-its for important concepts. For Bio one doesn't always NEED notes per se. What's important is that one UNDERSTAND what one has read, and frequently, while reading, be able to paraphrase what they've discussed previously. Eg, in the hormones chapter in EK, they'd give you a brief overview of all the steroid hormones...then they'd discuss estrogen in particular (or whatever else) and this is when I would stop and remind myself...oh yes, estrogen = steroid hormone, what others are ALSO steroids?? This leads to frequent repetition.

Now, with that being said, I believe notes did help me with physics, but it's not like I referred back to my notes before my MCAT. I only made the notes for physics b/c it kept me focussed on the task at hand.

So, do what you will, make notes or don't, but what is MOST important, is that you understand the who, what's, where's, and how's of a process; and then follow it up with many practice problems.

 

[Global Warming]

Nice topic. I have been debating this too, but also didn't want to fall into the mindset of "the grass being greener on the other side". Thus far, I am been doing my content review by carefully taking detailed notes (going very slow). I went especially slow for Bio b/c it is my weakest section. So far, I feel like my content review has been very good. Could it have been better had I NOT taken any notes? Im not sure.

However, I plan to finish off my content review by rereading everything w/o taking notes and recopying my notes after that. I must admit however that taking detailed notes in the Bio section has been tedious and painfully slow. However, I also felt that I was actively engaged in the material and I feel MUCH stronger in Bio now. I'll be doing pure Q&A, then passages, then FL practice exams. I will see how I do on Q & A.....

I would love to hear the opinion of somebody who swears by their notes.

 

[J ROD]

I think it is a waste of time unless that is the only way you can learn.

 

[BerkReviewTeach]

The bottom line is that the MCAT rewards your ability to answer questions, not your ability to take notes and mark up textbooks. Do more passages and questions and forget note taking.

 

[IndianVercetti]

I also think that NOT taking notes forces you to learn to absorb information rapidly as you read - which is vital for reading the science passages in BS. This is something I'm very weak at, so I'm constantly trying to practice this.

 

[rama kandra]

Yeah note taking, writing down stuff is just an exercise in futility for the MCAT. Admittedly we should pretty much know the basic outline of the topics. Aside from that, writing down some concept or formula or sentence from a book will just sit in a pile of papers 100 sheets high by the end of the month and you'll have no idea what to make of it.

Answering the questions in EK 1001 books I feel is pretty much a combination of content review and question tactics. AMIRIGHT?

 

[iceet]

Aside from that, writing down some concept or formula or sentence from a book will just sit in a pile of papers 100 sheets high by the end of the month and you'll have no idea what to make of it.

Answering the questions in EK 1001 books I feel is pretty much a combination of content review and question tactics. AMIRIGHT?

I am currently using Microsoft OneNote to compile all of the EK 1001 problems I get wrong into a single notebook.

Don't know how useful OneNote would be for content review.

 

[rama kandra]

Wow I just got this program when I got office ultimate - It looked very cool, but I figured it was most useful with a tablet/pen.

Do you use it with one, or just regularly? I have not played around but is it really any good?

 

[PreMedHopeful]

im currently going over the bio/chem outline and I took notes...so I'm reading 11 pages everyday, which is about 3-4 pages of notes...then I'm going to process it by typing the notes...

whatever way works for you is it, for me note taking allows me to focus better and not just read for the he** of it

 

[iceet]

Wow I just got this program when I got office ultimate - It looked very cool, but I figured it was most useful with a tablet/pen.

Do you use it with one, or just regularly? I have not played around but is it really any good?

Tablet features are not required but can be useful. I type a lot faster than I write so I don't really need them much. They can be helpful for drawing diagrams however.