just bought a wacom tablet

[waspahh33]

---

Members do not see this ad.

So i just purchased a wacom bamboo pen tablet with high hope of compatibility and ease of use. I am curious if anyone else has purchased one of these or anything similar and if they can share their thoughts of how it has helped them in school. Particularly, what programs, etc have you found it useful?

Thanks!

 

[Postal]

I'm thinking about purchasing this tablet as well. Feedback would be appreciated by me.

 

[bleeker10]

I used a Bamboo tablet during my first year. It was great to draw on powerpoint slides and draw pictures or figures if needed. Also there was a cool highlighting tool which I used to review my typed notes. I didn't use it second year because I switched to a Macbook Pro and couldn't get the software to work quite right.

I thought the tablet worked best in anatomy, histology and embryology because there were a lot of drawings the profs did in class. I was able to resell the tablet on amazon for about 60% of purchase price so all-in-all it was a good purchase

 

[fiznat]

My school includes Lenovo tablets with our tuition and passes them out to every student at orientation. I've been really happy with them. Most students import powerpoint slides into OneNote, and write on them during lectures. Like others have said, it is really helpful to draw on the slides- especially in the anatomy and histology lectures.

 

[Velocity]

I've used this setup for years. How useful it is may depend on what operating system you're running. On Mac OS X, I use the operating system's built-in Ink window to draw, and then "send" (paste) it into Microsoft Word as part of my notes. Works well for me. I can't draw directly on PowerPoint slides this way, but it works for me.

If you're using Windows Vista or 7, you may have an easier time with this. It's not my primary OS so I don't have as much experience with it, but OneNote would be incredibly useful software to pair up with the tablet.

Have fun!

 

[scummie]

It really depends on how you study. For some, it might be too much of a hassle to get the tablet set up for every class.

I had a friend in college who used a tablet for EVERYTHING and there were quite a few obstacles. I thought about getting one but stopped because typing my notes makes them easier to read and share plus it's easier to make study guides with them too.

There are some things that you will learn better by drawing them out, but it all depends on how your brain works.

Finally, if your school just gives out note packets, but not the power point file, you could be screwed. Some profs won't even give you notes or the ppt!

 

[Velocity]

I had a friend in college who used a tablet for EVERYTHING and there were quite a few obstacles. I thought about getting one but stopped because typing my notes makes them easier to read and share plus it's easier to make study guides with them too.

You don't need to use the tablet for everything. I type much faster than I write, and my handwriting is difficult to read, so I didn't write out my notes. The tablet was purely for those classes were graphs and figures would be drawn out. The tablet allowed me to have the best of both worlds: the ability to draw figures freely, while retaining the speed and legibility of typed text.

It takes a bit of getting used to (where you write isn't where the "ink" appears) but I think it's a great tool.

 

[Postal]

good feedback🙂

I think I'll definitively purchase this now. I'm finding biochem to be one of those classes where I might want to draw things out...