Note Taking

[jonny12]

What is the best way to take notes in med school? I have been used to taking notes manually throughout undergraduate courses and haven't really used a laptop to do so, but I know many med schools have laptop requirements and it may be more convenient to use a laptop for notes due to the breadth of information.

What does everyone think? For those who use a laptop, any recommendations on what kind to purchase?

Thanks.

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[Antibodies]

Laptop is probably best. You will have the powerpoint available, so you can take notes right in the "notes" part below each slide.

Any laptop is likely fine. If the classroom has outlets you can use then battery life isn't that important, otherwise longer batter life is better.

 

[SlickNickMD]

Notes were a huge part of my learning process in college. I completely gave up on this after the first quarter of med school. I think note taking in med school is futile, considering the amount of information you need to master. My approach is I read everything from many different sources powerpoints, main text, review texts, and practice problems......it's working so far.

 

[thechad]

I didn't take notes. I bought them in the form of BRS, RR, or HY books.

 

[Rollo]

Yep, I pretty much gave up on taking notes after the second anatomy exam.

As someone mentioned, I also read the material from several different sources and ingrained it in my head. Then I wrote out "buzz words" or any key findings associated with different pathologies on the powerpoint slides itself.

I know few people who still take notes...lot of notes...and they spend lot of time taking those notes. It works for them I suppose.

And buy the laptop that you can afford. Cheaper the better. You don't need anything fancy.

 

[IMGUSMLEStep1]

I went with the review books option. Worked great for me.

 

[silverhorse84]

At my school you get a binder with all the notes for lectures in them (for most lectures) - I just took extra notes on those as needed. For biochem we got the powerpoint presentations instead - I took notes on my laptop in the powerpoint files.

 

[SouthernSurgeon]

Notes were a huge part of my learning process in college. I completely gave up on this after the first quarter of med school. I think note taking in med school is futile, considering the amount of information you need to master. My approach is I read everything from many different sources powerpoints, main text, review texts, and practice problems......it's working so far.

Agreed. I was one of those meticulous note-takers in college - before every test I would have these glorious review notes that had everything you needed to know on them.

If I tried to do that in med school I would have (a) written a note set the size of a textbook and (b) needed to work 30 hours a day to finish them by the test.

During lectures I would scribble notes in the margins of my course notes/ppt slides for any incomplete or confusing information.

Now that said - everyone has their own methods and I did know kids who managed to keep on taking tons and tons of notes - I don't know how they found the time.

 

[SirGecko]

If they give you the powerpoints ahead of time and that is it take notes on the powerpoints. If they give you a note set (I personally greatly prefer this) then take notes on the note set. Either way though I didn't take a lot of notes for MS1 year. (got less and less as the year went by too) This of course will also depend on if you have a good text, if you go to class, if the professors test on a lot of material that isn't in the note set, if you can learn it without writing it out, etc.

 

[LossForWords]

I purchased the note packets the departments put out. That had about 90% of the info needed for the exam. Then I just jotted a few notes in the margins to cover the other 10% or to clarify stuff.

 

[LordATPSynthase]

I (In a word document) type everything that is presented on the powerpoint (in own words if possible) + all info that the lecturer voices that is not on the powerpoint. (bullet points, indentation as proper) I do this while I'm home (I skip everything) listening to recordings that are synced with powerpoints.

This takes a lot of time and is probably unnecessary.

Many people like handwriting notes but since I can type ~120 WPM, handwriting is just out of the question.

 

[abmd]

I purchased the note packets the departments put out. That had about 90% of the info needed for the exam. Then I just jotted a few notes in the margins to cover the other 10% or to clarify stuff.

What! They made you pay for note packets. As if we don't pay enough already.

 

[da8s0859q]

I (In a word document) type everything that is presented on the powerpoint (in own words if possible) + all info that the lecturer voices that is not on the powerpoint. (bullet points, indentation as proper) I do this while I'm home (I skip everything) listening to recordings that are synced with powerpoints.

This takes a lot of time and is probably unnecessary.

Many people like handwriting notes but since I can type ~120 WPM, handwriting is just out of the question.

I did this for awhile through MS-I. Worked okay, but I was always hating myself for essentially rewriting what was already there in lecture handouts and whatnot.

 

[LordATPSynthase]

yeah I was also hating myself (just finished year 1) too haha. I'm not sure what I'll do for MS2... but I had plenty of free time in MS1 so the method might still work. We just need to adapt well...

 

[JonathanMD]

I just print out all the Power Points and come prepared with all my different colored highlighters and sharpie pens. I have different notations for things that are more important than others. Also different colors mean different things (purple = clinical correlate).

When I have time, I usually draw out anything that can be put into a flow chart or diagram (embryo, mitosis/meiosis, glycolysis, brachial plexus, axillary artery, etc.).

For other review material with bullet points and things like that, there's always hand-me-down notes available. I just make sure to study from both my point points and the outlines.

And... I have a much easier time following along if I go to class. I have no dicipline when it comes to hitting the pause button, double speed, and taking 5 mini breaks when I do it online.