Recommended Supplies and Note-taking/Study Method for PT School?

[Yogic]

Hello everyone! I've recently been accepted into PT school and was wondering what any current PT students would recommend in terms of supplies they found useful, as well as how they took notes in and out of class? I am planning on getting a 2 inch binder to hold printed powerpoint slides for each class and after each exam switch the material to a larger binder. Do you think that is feasible? Is there too much material to print off all those slides (3-6 slides per side of a page), or should I invest in an ipad, apple pen and notability for example? Thanks


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[jdaniels360]

Forget paper. iPad Air 2. Notability.


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[topher031888]

I used to take all my notes in the bottom section on power point on my laptop but I switched over to my iPad using notability with a mesh tipped stylus, best thing I ever did. I browse the Internet a lot less and I don't have to carry around much. My back has thanked me.

I do have a couple of classmates that do exactly what you are planning. It is a lot more work for them and they spend a small fortune printing things (probably less than the cost of my iPad) over the course of the program but they learn better taking notes on paper. They also have a small mountain of binders at home whereas I take all my notes with me wherever I go.

 

[starrsgirl]

I gave up paper notes after the first semester....it was a nightmare to print everything, deal with last minute lecture changes, access older lectures quickly. I use an iPad and Notability as well.

I get cheap pens on amazon and they work great! (I have the original iPad mini...so not that new).

 

[Yogic]

Do you feel like not being able to flip from one page to another quickly affects your ability to study? That's my main concern with the iPad, otherwise I'd get it in a heartbeat. Thank you all for your replies!


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[jdaniels360]

You can "flip" however fast you'd like with the iPad and notability, trust me!


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[Yogic]

Well you've definitely given me something to think about, thanks for your quick reply!


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[DesertPT]

iPad + Bluetooth keyboard/case + Notability + automatic backup to Google Drive. 10/10 would recommend.


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[DesertPT]

Even if you do like taking notes by hand, trust me you'll want to have digital access to all lecture materials at all times. Having only paper would be a big pain compared to what you can do with a tablet or a laptop


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[abynormal]

iPad + Bluetooth keyboard/case + Notability + automatic backup to Google Drive. 10/10 would recommend.


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would an ipad mini be ok? I watched some youtube videos of notability and really like the concept.

 

[steveyk]

I used to take all my notes in the bottom section on power point on my laptop but I switched over to my iPad using notability with a mesh tipped stylus, best thing I ever did. I browse the Internet a lot less and I don't have to carry around much. My back has thanked me.

I do have a couple of classmates that do exactly what you are planning. It is a lot more work for them and they spend a small fortune printing things (probably less than the cost of my iPad) over the course of the program but they learn better taking notes on paper. They also have a small mountain of binders at home whereas I take all my notes with me wherever I go.

upcoming first year PT student here. do you somehow import the professor's ppt slides to notability and type/write over them or just take your own personal and separate notes and refer to the ppt slides later? im new to taking notes on an ipad/notability and realizing itll take some creativity. would love your input

 

[DesertPT]

upcoming first year PT student here. do you somehow import the professor's ppt slides to notability and type/write over them or just take your own personal and separate notes and refer to the ppt slides later? im new to taking notes on an ipad/notability and realizing itll take some creativity. would love your input

Yes, download professors lecture notes provided usually in PDF format on webcampus / Blackboard. Then take notes right over top of the slide. Best way IMO

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[DesertPT]

would an ipad mini be ok? I watched some youtube videos of notability and really like the concept.

If you were going to go out and buy a iPad I would say buy the normal size one rather than the mini, just because the screen size on the mini can make it a little harder to work with. But if you already have a mini it works totally fine, probably not worth going out and buying a new iPad unless you were going to anyway. There is one guy in my class that uses an iPad Mini for everything and he seems to do fine

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[socalboy7]

Also an upcoming first year student but in search of purchasing first tablet. I'm not really an apple fan. Does anyone know of the best non apple equivalent of ipad / notability?

 

[malibu3]

I think evernote is good

 

[nature_girl]

Also an upcoming first year student but in search of purchasing first tablet. I'm not really an apple fan. Does anyone know of the best non apple equivalent of ipad / notability?

Microsoft OneNote is also good

 

[DesertPT]

there are definitely plenty of good apps out there for notetaking and organizing on windows or android tablets. So if you don't like Apple products just get whatever you do like. I only got an iPad because the software that we use to take exams doesn't have an android version. overall I still like android better than Apple's operating system, however I will say the iPads have much better battery life than any other tablet. You wouldn't think you would need your battery to last for 15 hours but you'd be surprised how much time you spend at school some days ha ha


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[Kuhdaytee]

I don't have an iPad or tablet, and most of my classmates don't either. You'll be fine with just a laptop, if you're on the fence about getting one. I type all my notes underneath Powerpoint slides and it hasn't been an issue whatsoever. I have a MacBook Air and I love the battery life - I'm in class all day and don't have to worry about charging it.

 

[pixel816]

ipad with notability. you can record the lectures and when you click on the note, it'll go to that part of the lecture. but for labs, it was all hand written notes and sometimes the professor allowed for video recording during the demos.

 

[abynormal]

Does anyone have any advice on copying ppsx files into notability on an iPad?

 

[pixel816]

I upload them onto google drive then open them up in notability

 

[Azimuthal]

Does anyone have any advice on copying ppsx files into notability on an iPad?

Sometimes the borders, fonts, and formatting does not translate well. The best way is to (1) use a PC/Mac's office program to DL the night before, (2) save as .pdf, (3) save to drop box (or something else) and open to notability. Most will open and transfer just fine.

 

[DesertPT]

Notability will automatically convert powerpoints, word docs, etc to a pdf when you send a file to it on the ipad. The above is true that you can have minor formatting issues occasionally but for the most part it is not an issue for me. If you do have a problem with it, the post above is probably the way to go if possible. 99% of my course materials in PT school have been provided from the faculty in pdf format over webcampus anyway, but occasionally I do convert something but I generally just let notability do it (usually word docs - only occasionally have I had to take extra steps because of formatting issues).

 

[socalboy7]

Okay, I caved and bought the ipad pro. Other than notability, what other apps do you guys suggest to increase productivity in school?

 

[Azimuthal]

Okay, I caved and bought the ipad pro. Other than notability, what other apps do you guys suggest to increase productivity in school?

Most of the MS Office suites. Google drive. Netter's. The Cochran Library. Kindle. Dartfish.

 

[jdaniels360]

iPad with notability. Best purchase I ever made.


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[brooklynyc]

The only thing I use now is OneNote. I LOVE OneNote. I am NOT an organized person by nature but I love how organized OneNote makes me.

I have attached a screenshot of my OneNote. This is how I organize my notes. Each Notebook corresponds to the semester, each tab in the notebook corresponds to the class and each page is a lecture. It's really and intuitive to use. The best part about OneNote and Evernote (I'm not sure about Notability) is that your notes are searchable. This is huge because is if you take good notes, they don't just sit there in some word doc now in the dust. The search function is such an incredible tool and I implore ALL students to use a note taking program that has this future, whether OneNote or otherwise. I love that it saves to the cloud because my laptop crashed on me this semester and it was almost a total disaster because I had to do a clean wipe and could not recover any data. Fortunately, I was still able to salvage my notes because it was all on the cloud. Since then, I have made a point to import PDFs and such into my OneNote and take notes on top of it.

Do yourself a favor . . . don't just use Microsoft Word. Total disservice to yourself!

 

[chicandtoughness]

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[steveyk]

I'm a semester into my DPT program. Notability and an iPad is the key! I have classmates who claim to work and study best w a physical copy of notes or handouts. However, when professors make changes to ppt slides or add a document last minute, they have to sprint to the library to print those notes out or just... not have the notes for class that day. I know for me, notes are way more organized w notability vs. written notes or printed slides.

And the downside of lap tops is the fact that you can't draw on the ppt slides efficiently like you can on notability on an iPad. Yeah... Notability changed my life.

 

[Ndebt]

I downloaded notability today and it's like a dream I'm wondering why you all didn't tell me about this is undergrad

 

[Phyline]

I love OneNote. However, I have a PC, and it has much more functionality on a PC than a Mac. I love having all the files easily accessible and together, and I know exactly which file goes with which lecture, rather than opening a folder and searching for a particular Word or PowerPoint. It saves to the cloud, and I can access it on every single device - reading off a phone, highlighting on an iPad, whatever.

 

[KPtoDPT]

This is pretty related to the thread but would you guys suggest getting mostly ebooks or Hardcopy? I need about 17 books for 1st semester and I can't imagine getting all hard copies.

 

[chicandtoughness]

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[KPtoDPT]

I went full e-books my senior year of college and never looked back. The option to Cntrl+F and find anything I want in a 800-page textbook is an amazing thing. That, and not having to carry around an additional 4 pounds per book. I think I had 12 textbooks that year and having them all in a 2-pound tablet was amazing. In terms of study effectiveness, some people say that you can't concentrate as well on a screen vs. a paper copy... I call bull****. I have all my books on Kindle so I can highlight and mark them up as much as I want. Most of the time I just use it to bookmark passages that I have questions on or need to review later - for the most part I write my own notes on a separate document while reading.

you're right, the idea that I can virtually look up anything immediately is appealing. I do however think I'm the kind of person who retains more info from reading a physical book vs. a screen. I think I'm gonna go half ebook, half textbook and see how I do this semester.

 

[Kuhdaytee]

This is pretty related to the thread but would you guys suggest getting mostly ebooks or Hardcopy? I need about 17 books for 1st semester and I can't imagine getting all hard copies.

I would wait to buy all 17 books. I purchased a lot of books on the syllabi for first semester and only liked using half of them. I liked having ebooks for the classes that don't use the textbook that often, or you can consider renting textbooks. 2nd and 3rd year students often sell copies of books, but now I try to only purchase physical books if I'll be using them for more than one semester.

 

[abynormal]

Came here to say, that I love notability after my first semester. I use it with to the Maglus stylus. Also, before you purchase textbooks check to see if a book is offered through database subscriptions like clinical key. 3 of mine were.

 

[achamess]

In addition to tools/apps, it's also important to have an approach to learning all the things you'll be presented in PT school. There is just so much information to absorb, and what got you through college will likely not suffice at the next level. This is the situation I found myself in during my preclinical years of med school. I did some research on effective learning strategies that are backed by evidence, and what emerged were things like spaced repetition and the testing effect.
For example, for learning anatomy, Anki flashcards are incredibly useful.
Along with one of my classmates, I created a guide that ties to together all the techniques we learned for how to best learn medicine. I hope it helps you with your educational journey.