After your midterm exams, you may ask yourself if your note taking method is beneficial. Will an iPad solve all of your problems? Should you continue with pencil and paper? After trying different methods over the last couple of years, I wanted to provide some advice on how to pick a method that works for you. 

Digital/iPad notes

Nowadays, there are a lot of students across different majors who do digital notetaking as their primary form of class notetaking. Having all your notes in one place, such as an iPad or laptop, relieves weight from your shoulders.

Pros:

• Avoids the issue of taking several notebooks in your backpack you would then have to carry around campus.

• Easy to annotate a professor’s slides and download provided work to then submit easily. 

• Don’t have to worry about owning a printer or going out of your way to print something.

• Easy to fix mistakes that your professor or you might make when taking notes or completing an assignment.

Cons:

• Expensive. Not everyone has the opportunity to buy new technology AND notetaking apps while paying for college. 

  • Most notetaking apps cost money. Their features are worth it, yet deciding which app to get and then having a system to back up your files can be frustrating.

    • Possible solution: Because engineering students are required to have a laptop with specific requirements (see here for more information), I have friends and classmates who have Microsoft Surface Pros where they can rock both worlds of tablet and laptop. 

• The risk of losing files:

  • Because everything is centralized in one place, the chance of losing everything also increases. Make sure you have a way to back up your notes and files!

Paper notes

If you don’t like digital notes and stick with the ol’ reliable paper notes, I understand your loyalty! As classrooms move back to in-person lectures and exams, more and more professors have returned to pencil-paper exams you turn in versus submitting a PDF of your work. This gold standard of taking notes comes with its flaws, though; hence, some students have turned to digital notes.

Pros:

• More financially feasible for many.
• Can practice/absorb the information more and then apply it to paper exams. 
• You have more versatility in creating different folders, notebooks, collages or binders for organizing your notes. 
• When professors allow “open note” exams, typically, they only allow paper notes so that you can use your notes from the semester. (Some professors may allow iPad notes, it just depends.)

Cons:

• Increases the physical weight of your backpack, causing strain as you move around campus.
• Have to scan assignments and homework through your phone in order to submit them on Canvas or other submission sites.
• Might have to catch up on a professor’s notes at a later time because they quickly click through slides in class.

How to pick one that works for you

After a couple of weeks, you should be familiar with the way your professors conduct their classes. Do they upload their lectures in advance? After? Not at all? That can determine how you annotate or come prepared to start with a blank page. If you have trouble keeping track of your notes, maybe it’s time to reorganize! The important thing is recognizing what you are doing isn’t working and you try changing your methods of learning.

Finally, you can choose multiple methods. For example, I will always take math notes on pencil and paper. Something about the way the texture of working it out and visualizing it on paper allows me to understand and practice the material more. In contrast, I like downloading a professor’s slides and annotating them if they’re uploaded before class.