Note taking on OneNote in pharmacy school?

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TheOnlinePharmacist

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Hey all! So just wrapped up day 2 of orientation, the highlight was the OneNote vs Notability discussion, where two P2 students just gave you the advantages of each, and in all honesty the orientation leader speaking for OneNote didn't really do a good job, while the Notability speaker was superb. So I'm kinda confused rn. Need sum assistance pl0x.

So, for those of you who own an IPad Pro or Surface Pro and USE OneNote, please give me ideas on what method of note taking to try out first! Currently I'm thinking about taking notes on the ppt. during class and then using my own words to take notes on OneNote after class. I heard some people export their powerpoint slides into OneNote and take notes in different colors, for example: Green writing = lecture notes, Blue = after lecture notes, Red = Important, purple = don't understand, etc. Which I'd be willing to try...because it sounds SUPER organized. But I don't know how to export slides into OneNote anyways. SO if you like that method lemme know haha.

Also, any note taking tips in general would be AWESOME. :)

DISCLAIMER: DON'T COME UP IN HERE AND OPEN A DEBATE ABOUT NOTABILITY BEING BETTER. I KNOW IT'S GREAT AND ALL BUT I OWN A SURFACE PRO.

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Surface pro stylus can be buggy (mine would not work in hot weather; I have given up trying)

You younger generation might be overlooking the more simplistic approach of just writing notes off to the side of powerpoint slides then editing/revising as a means of review/study. I would use the "monk" method of just transcribing (writing in notebook or typing in word/etc. whatever you like) all lecture notes & use certain formats to distinguish in class notes with (my own notes). More effort required, but the act of revising, organizing, & editing in itself is a form of studying & memorization.
 
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You younger generation
This made me laugh for some reason! :happy:

Anyhow, I actually agree with you. Now that I think about it, people do sometimes complicate it. BUT, I must say: When a professor is going through multiple slides per minute, I think it's insanity to take notes on a notebook DURING class. But, I might take your advice and try out taking notes on the sides of the powerpoint/PDF slide and then writing them out after class.
 
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DISCLAIMER: DON'T COME UP IN HERE AND OPEN A DEBATE ABOUT NOTABILITY BEING BETTER. I KNOW IT'S GREAT AND ALL BUT I OWN A SURFACE PRO.

So your only option at this point is OneNote and not Notability...

Both are great apps - and you can get both on the iPad Pro...

I prefer using my iPad with notability over using OneNote but that’s just me... I like how easy it is to back up and share My notes / files with notability - versus one note is a little bit trickier once you have a semesters worth of files in it... notability doesn’t hiccup at all.. I have PDF copies of my books and cut each chapter into their own pdf - I think import the Lecture slides and split screen the book / chapter on the left side and the Lecture slides on the right..

But that’s just my opinion on it...

Both devices are wonderful.. I just prefer the iPad over the surface - but if your using it for ExamSoft - you’ll need another PC in addition to the iPad...

Btw; I’m a current Pharm D candidate - if you need help with anything - I don’t mind lending a hand...



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I used Onenote during pharmacy school and I wish I would've for undergrad too. I imported the slide sets and then took notes in the margins. The best thing about doing this is that all of your notes and slides sets are searchable from one location. Really helpful when you're trying to recall some detail about some drug that you learned in biochem...while on a P4 rotation. Highly recommend it.
 
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Just throwing this out there, but many studies show handwriting your notes lead to increased retention rates compared to typing them out. New tech doesn't always lead to increased success.
 
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Just throwing this out there, but many studies show handwriting your notes lead to increased retention rates compared to typing them out. New tech doesn't always lead to increased success.

Very true. That’s why I use notability and hand write my notes onto my iPad directly in the slide deck..


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Just throwing this out there, but many studies show handwriting your notes lead to increased retention rates compared to typing them out. New tech doesn't always lead to increased success.
100% agree with that, but If you hand write all the material you need to know in a PharmD program, its gonna take you 10 years.
 
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I used OneNote when I first got my iPad Pro because it was free...

With OneNote, I liked how you could write in margins and as "long" a page as you wanted, but when I needed to print or send a file, everything was split up into so many pages rather than just in one.

Notability shows you and outlines what a single "page" is and you can zoom in and out just the same as with OneNote. When I print or send a file, it all looks very neat.

There's really nothing you can't do on Notability that you can on OneNote when it comes to taking notes with colors and such. If my professor saves powerpoints as a PDF, I can save it to Notability in order to add notes to. If not, I just edit the powerpoint in the actual Microsoft PowerPoint app.
 
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I used OneNote when I first got my iPad Pro because it was free...

With OneNote, I liked how you could write in margins and as "long" a page as you wanted, but when I needed to print or send a file, everything was split up into so many pages rather than just in one.

Notability shows you and outlines what a single "page" is and you can zoom in and out just the same as with OneNote. When I print or send a file, it all looks very neat.

There's really nothing you can't do on Notability that you can on OneNote when it comes to taking notes with colors and such. If my professor saves powerpoints as a PDF, I can save it to Notability in order to add notes to. If not, I just edit the powerpoint in the actual Microsoft PowerPoint app.

OneNote can do the single “page” with long print outs also. It’s just a setting you might have to change.

I never used Notability. I used OneNote in school and it worked really well for me. It sounds like they mostly do the same thing, so I’d just look into the easy back up options and search ability. Searching on OneNote is easy, but when I had to move my files off of the school server it took a little longer and was a little tricker than I would’ve liked.

I liked the screen clipping with OneNote.
 
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OneNote can do the single “page” with long print outs also. It’s just a setting you might have to change.

I never used Notability. I used OneNote in school and it worked really well for me. It sounds like they mostly do the same thing, so I’d just look into the easy back up options and search ability. Searching on OneNote is easy, but when I had to move my files off of the school server it took a little longer and was a little tricker than I would’ve liked.

I liked the screen clipping with OneNote.

Yes, the single page with long print out is a con rather than a pro in this situation.
I'd rather have the clear page margins to print on a standard sheet of paper.

In other situations that involve drawing a lot of diagrams, or simple grocery lists, I use OneNote
 
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I used one note first year. Discovered it was pointless since you could not search imported powerpoints by keyword. Much easier to type notes in notes section under the slide. Then when you want to lookup something later... Ahem 4th year rotations......, you just run Windows search function on the folder holding all your PowerPoints and it shows you every file and slide that the search word exists in, so you can instantly get back to that slide that talked about X drug
 
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