PharmD students- do you tape lectures?

[crossurfingers]

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I'm debating getting a digital recorder for lectures. It would have helped a lot in undergrad anatomy, but I'm looking for some input on if it would help with classes in Pharm school.

 

[jdpharmd?]

Just ask yourself if you will ever listen to the tapes. It's a definate "no" for me, since I can't even thumb through my notes every day, buy your mileage may vary. It is generally considered a waste of time, in my opinion.

 

[bananaface]

One of my classmates does.

 

[LVPharm]

I have one classmate who used to hook up her digital voice recorder to her laptop and used the windows sound recorder application to save lectures. Don't know how or why she did it, but she did. I never felt the need to tape lectures. Almost everything discussed in class was in the powerpoint or lecture packets, and taking notes by hand was never a problem for me.

 

[bananaface]

I avoid paper by writing everything into my Tablet PC. 👍

I wish I could capture lectures in text format with voice recognition software. That would be awesome.

 

[imperial frog]

At UF all the lectures are taped for replay over the internet.

 

[neonam11]

I used to tape the lectures, but it took so long listening to the them. I would rewind every 2 minutes to catch every sentence the professors uttered instead of trying to grasp the main concepts. Though what the lecturers present is important, it's not the word of God, so my advice is read ahead and take notes in class. In the end, you'll be a much happier person.

 

[dgroulx]

I used one in undergrad. It was a digital recorder that plugged into my USB port. My professors didn't have handouts. They just talked and I wrote down what they said. The recorder allowed me to write my notes legibly later on.

I'm a little dyslexic when I try to write quickly. I mix up the letters p, b, d, etc. Sometimes I write the entire word backwards. At UF, I can pause the lecture and catch up my notes. So, the digital recorder is now on a shelf.

 

[baggywrinkle]

Back before there was powerpoint or the internet there were overhead projectors and chalkboards. I would not be here today had I not taped the lectures. With the tape running I could concentrate on making sure I got the information up on the board. I barely listened to the lecture itself when it was live.

Then later that day - it was very important to do it that day or at the very least within a day or two while the lecture was still fresh - I transcribed the tape into notes which were complete enough to be highly coveted by my classmates. They were a virtual verbatum transcript of the lecture. It was productive for me because the drill ensured at least two passes through the material before I even began to study the notes. It was time consuming. During the most intense part of pharmacy school I closed the health sciences library down for two years - it closed at 2am and was 24 hours during finals. I was there long after the med students went home for the night and no I did not have a life.

As the program progressed more folks began taping. Some sent their recorders to lecture with friends while they did other things (slept in). I had mental images of a prof delivering a lecture to an empty room with a forest of recorders on the desks. Something like this actually happened in Pharmacology/Toxicology. Three designated note takers who were paid taped, transcribed, and copied the notes for the class while the rest of us went skiing...

 

[vafcarrot]

I HATE powerpoint. Every teacher I have that uses this doesn't understand that reading the sentence fragments that they threw onto powerpoint thirty minutes before class does not count as lecturing. I always feel like grabbing the prof and shaking them and yelling at them that I learned how to read in kindergarden and I can read the textbook and the freaking overhead and there's no need for them to do it for me!!!!

I've never taped lectures. I write pretty good notes and they haven't hurt me yet. Hopefully, note taking won't be too different when (and if) I get into pharmacy school. 🙂


Edit... excuse me. I've fix most of my mistakes. I'll leave the run on sentence though because I was using that as a tool to emphasize my frustration with powerpoint.

 

[bananaface]

.ppt is a tool, not a crutch. People who misuse it are annoying. But when it is used well, it can be great.

Check this presentation out. Make sure you watch slides 9-12. 😉 It was given by a group in my MedChem class.

Does anyone still hate .ppt? 😀


edit: be sure to let the video clip in slide 11 play too!

 

[dgroulx]

The Matrix part was cute. This looked more like a microbiology class presentation than Med Chem, though.

 

[bananaface]

It was from a course on antimicrobials and immunizing agents.