note taking

[iphetamine]

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Fellow students, grads, PhD's, do you take notes using paper/pen or use OneNote or similar word processor?

The trend now is that everything's in pdfs and ppt slides, so mind as well note books and binders are phasing out?

 

[CUpharmD2013]

OneNote is da bomb! Especially if you can get an e-copy of your book for the class. I hate having textbooks and notebooks laying around everywhere.

I should note that I have a Tablet PC and can ink/highlight right on Word, Powerpoint, and PDFs that are printed to OneNote.

 

[Allure]

I still like to take notes the old fashion way. What I've noticed is that girls are still taking notes that way, but not so much for the guys.

 

[crazybob]

I notice people using their laptops and taking notes on Microsoft Word.

But many others still use pens and highlighters.

 

[Theta16]

OneNote is the way to go if your materials are primarily in pdf form. You can "print" them to OneNote and then type/highlight/draw all over them while also keeping everything in one place.

 

[pandapharmer]

I still like to take notes the old fashion way. What I've noticed is that girls are still taking notes that way, but not so much for the guys.

Why do you say that? There's not a whole lot of people in my class who bring their laptops to class, but of that handful, I'd say it's mostly girls, if not half/half. I take all my notes on my computer. The snow leopard upgrade for macs lets me edit pdfs in Preview, so I can write my notes and highlight stuff directly on the pdf. When I'm studying for exams though, I still like to make my own handwritten outlines from the notes, I can't just look at the material and let it absorb.

Mostly I just love not having to print off all those notes and it saves paper/ink/money. My notes for exams I write on old papers that were only printed on one side. Yay for the environment! 😀

 

[CUpharmD2013]

OneNote is the way to go if your materials are primarily in pdf form. You can "print" them to OneNote and then type/highlight/draw all over them while also keeping everything in one place.

You can print anything to OneNote. Word files, Power Point presentations, PDFs, etc. I even print my online receipts to OneNote and keep them nicely filed there.

 

[spacecowgirl]

WTF is OneNote? I've never heard of that before. I'll have to look that up. First I gotta find my dentures and bifocals, apparently.

 

[spacecowgirl]

Wow. I have it on my laptop that's pretty bad.

 

[MJayHart]

I would love to hear from anyone using Microsoft OneNote in conjunction with a tablet PC for note-taking in classes.

 

[Sparda29]

What I used to do was type up notes into OneNote with the slides there and then retranscribe them into paper slides. But then I got lazy and just typed the notes into the notes section in Powerpoint and left it at that.

 

[CUpharmD2013]

I would love to hear from anyone using Microsoft OneNote in conjunction with a tablet PC for note-taking in classes.

Ummm, look at the 2nd post. What would you like to know?

 

[charfdorn]

I would love to hear from anyone using Microsoft OneNote in conjunction with a tablet PC for note-taking in classes.

I do this. I love it. I also use an application called PDF Annotator to write directly on PDF files with my tablet, and I use the Ink Tools function of Word and PowerPoint sometimes, too. It's a hodgepodge. OneNote works great with the tablet, though.

 

[MindOverMatter]

Mind as well? I thought it was "minus well."

 

[MJayHart]

I do this. I love it. I also use an application called PDF Annotator to write directly on PDF files with my tablet, and I use the Ink Tools function of Word and PowerPoint sometimes, too. It's a hodgepodge. OneNote works great with the tablet, though.

Can you think of any major disadvantages over traditional pen(cil)-and-paper note-taking, besides the obvious up-front cost of a tablet PC? Also, any tips on picking out a tablet?

 

[CUpharmD2013]

Can you think of any major disadvantages over traditional pen(cil)-and-paper note-taking, besides the obvious up-front cost of a tablet PC? Also, any tips on picking out a tablet?

Obviously cost is the major disadvantage. You'll probably want to pay to back up your files online. It will also take you a little time to get used to writing on the tablet.

I have the Fujitsu Lifebook T5010.

 

[aboveliquidice]

Fellow students, grads, PhD's, do you take notes using paper/pen or use OneNote or similar word processor?

The trend now is that everything's in pdfs and ppt slides, so mind as well note books and binders are phasing out?

I hate onenote... however, I have a tablet w/ wacom pen input. I use inking in word and PPT to add notes / highlights in the margins. Handwritten notes are no longer useful because the information is difficult to access later. If I can't find that great annotation on pg 6 of my oncology notes, the annotation was essentially never made.

With windows indexing, each and every word is searchable now - it is incredibly easy to access my pharmacy notes.

EDIT: Also, if you use windows Live MESH, you get free instant data backup online up to 5gb. After a painful laptop crash, I began backing up all of my docs (notes especially) online. I highly recommend it as well.

 

[Old Timer]

It's been a really long time since I was in school. I think if you are taking notes on a computer, you are skipping the most important part of attending a lecture. That part is hearing. I never understood why some of my classmates would spend their time like they were court stenographers, copying every word the professor uttered. They key to everything is hearing to what they say. It's a skill you will need as you advance in your career anyway.

Notice I said hearing. Many people listen to a lecture and hear nothing.

 

[aboveliquidice]

Notice I said hearing. Many people listen to a lecture and hear nothing.

Going from college back to military training, the lack of laptops is very apparent. The ability to verbally hear orders and carry them out is definitely a priority here. Not so much in the classroom (at least in my recent college experience)

 

[iphetamine]

I hate onenote... however, I have a tablet w/ wacom pen input. I use inking in word and PPT to add notes / highlights in the margins. Handwritten notes are no longer useful because the information is difficult to access later. If I can't find that great annotation on pg 6 of my oncology notes, the annotation was essentially never made.

With windows indexing, each and every word is searchable now - it is incredibly easy to access my pharmacy notes.

EDIT: Also, if you use windows Live MESH, you get free instant data backup online up to 5gb. After a painful laptop crash, I began backing up all of my docs (notes especially) online. I highly recommend it as well.

hmm, why do you hate onenote? it's supposed to be much better than plain word/ppt, at least for fresh notes, not on margins, etc?

I'll look into that WL mesh, interesting.

 

[Ackj]

Notice I said hearing. Many people listen to a lecture and hear nothing.

This is the opposite of what I've always been told. Maybe we're referring to the terms differently, but I've thought that "hearing" was the physical action your ears perform, and "listening" would be the processing the input.

 

[charfdorn]

Can you think of any major disadvantages over traditional pen(cil)-and-paper note-taking, besides the obvious up-front cost of a tablet PC? Also, any tips on picking out a tablet?

It can be hard to flip though your notes without paper pages. You can do a search if you know what your looking for but if you have bad handwriting or only a vague idea of what you're looking for it can be awkward. Also, I'm wearing out my stylus and will have to buy a new one soon. lt's very important to make backups of your notes from time to time.

 

[type b pharmD]

notebooks and pens all the way. while 80% of my class brings laptops to lecture, the preferred choice for them seems to be to print out 30 pages a day of slides/ professors' notes. 😱 ,a lot of people take notes on their laptops as well.. but personally I've found the mechanical act of writing helps me think about the concepts more than typing them out.

Highly agree with old timer, it's easy to miss the way the concepts tie together when all you're doing is reading along on the bullet points or copying down every word. If you distill the important ideas in your notes/notebook, you'll have a lot less material to study. course, you can do this with computer notes too but the major downside of using a computer is DISTRACTION.

But, hand writing is inefficient.. because of this it helps me stay on top of my game paying attention and distilling concepts into the most important and concise pieces.

 

[confettiflyer]

My setup is ~98% digital. For therapeutics, we paste the blank cases into Google Docs and collaboratively take notes during lecture. One assigned person creates the condensed study guide for that topic and these assignments rotate.

For more didactic classes, we convert the powerpoints into condensed study guides on MS Word and assign one person each lecture to take detailed notes within the guide itself and polish it up.

Approx. 3-4 days before exam time, these polished/condensed study guides are due to the rest of the group. So for a P&T exam w/ 5 dz states, that's 1-2 pages each state = ~6-8 page condensed packet to study w/ raw class notes available on google docs if further clarification is needed.

This has cut down the individual work we do and makes our studying time more efficient (less sifting through extraneous material, more targeted notes).

 

[Jabberwocky12]

My setup is ~98% digital. For therapeutics, we paste the blank cases into Google Docs and collaboratively take notes during lecture. One assigned person creates the condensed study guide for that topic and these assignments rotate.

For more didactic classes, we convert the powerpoints into condensed study guides on MS Word and assign one person each lecture to take detailed notes within the guide itself and polish it up.

Approx. 3-4 days before exam time, these polished/condensed study guides are due to the rest of the group. So for a P&T exam w/ 5 dz states, that's 1-2 pages each state = ~6-8 page condensed packet to study w/ raw class notes available on google docs if further clarification is needed.

This has cut down the individual work we do and makes our studying time more efficient (less sifting through extraneous material, more targeted notes).

And where do you go to school? That sounds like a fantastic way to make sure everyone is on the same page. Probably makes study groups a little better as well if everyone has the same notes so people can ask different questions on the same foundations.

 

[confettiflyer]

And where do you go to school? That sounds like a fantastic way to make sure everyone is on the same page. Probably makes study groups a little better as well if everyone has the same notes so people can ask different questions on the same foundations.

I'm at Jefferson in Philadelphia. For the record (if this wasn't clear above), this method is student's prerogative and not anything officially done top down.

We have about 3-4 groups within the class that have naturally coalesced and produce notes/guides in this manner. There are handfuls of students that are "out in the cold" so to speak and are not a part of any group effort (some by choice, some not). My group has a strict "do not distribute" policy.

But to answer the OP earlier...it's all MS Word for final guides and google docs for collaborative note taking.

 

[SarahLorraine]

Mind as well? I thought it was "minus well."

lolololol

It's might as well!

 

[maria1oh]

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