A Learning Secret: Don't Take Notes with a Laptop (2014) • Hacker News Board

Re: A Learning Secret: Don't Take Notes with a Laptop (2014)

#231

Post by mensetmanusman » Tue, Jun 25, 2019, 7:26 PM UTC

kendallpark wrote: post #27

My current (digital) handwritten note setup: - iPad Pro with (Gen 1 :sadface:) Apple Pencil. - Screen protector that gives a significant amount of friction to the screen so that it feels closer to paper. [1] - Goodnotes 5 or Notability (I use both--depends on the circumstances). [2] - A rule: iPad is solely a reading/studying/note-taking device. No keyboard, no social media apps. - Bonus: Twelve South BookBook case.…

Agree with your sadface apple 1 pencil.

The #2 pencil is so much better, I almost wished they would have skipped v.1...

Re: A Learning Secret: Don't Take Notes with a Laptop (2014)

#232

Post by nicoburns » Tue, Jun 25, 2019, 7:26 PM UTC

module0000 wrote: post #201

seventhtiger wrote: post #116

I tended to be in the top of the classes I was in and as far as I've seen my method was somewhat different. I also only take notes on paper, but more importantly, I throw all my notes out as soon as I finish writing them. For me studying is the act of writing the notes. The purpose of notes was never to read them later. That's why writing on paper is important to me. It's not about the qualities and convenience of th…

> I throw all my notes out as soon as I finish writing them. I do the exact same thing, and haven't met anyone else that did it. I thought I was a weirdo all this time! My learning process is (as theorized by me): 1. Hear/see instructor say something 2. Mentally digest and understand it 3. Write down the product of understanding it I think #2 is the most important step, and the big purpose of step #3 is validating th…

Indeed, I tend to skip #3 during lectures so as to have more time on #2. I will generally work through problem sets (and/or essays/readings depending on the discipline) to consolidate this learning.

Re: A Learning Secret: Don't Take Notes with a Laptop (2014)

#233

Post by mensetmanusman » Tue, Jun 25, 2019, 7:27 PM UTC

rdlecler1 wrote: post #23

ergothus wrote: post #5

My issue with this has always been that my longhand is terrible, and writing under pressure makes it worse. Longhand notes (which I do frequently for the RPGs I run, so practice isnt the issue) are nigh unreadable. I literally have dozens of notebooks (not full, but at least 30 - 50 pages each is pretty common ) of notes I struggle to read and organize. Being able to write with speed and br able to read them is why a…

Not to mention archiving it. As a VC I’m taking notes on companies I meet with an need to get them into our CRM for future review

Take scribble notes, but then dictate them in with further comment immediately after. Speaking is ~150 wpm

Re: A Learning Secret: Don't Take Notes with a Laptop (2014)

#234

Post by buxtehude » Tue, Jun 25, 2019, 7:29 PM UTC

kevstev wrote: post #226

seventhtiger wrote: post #116

I tended to be in the top of the classes I was in and as far as I've seen my method was somewhat different. I also only take notes on paper, but more importantly, I throw all my notes out as soon as I finish writing them. For me studying is the act of writing the notes. The purpose of notes was never to read them later. That's why writing on paper is important to me. It's not about the qualities and convenience of th…

I did something a bit different- at the end of the term, I would rewrite my notes. A v2.0 of them. In the process I was going over all of my previous notes, but by that point I had a much greater understanding of how all the things fit together, which details were important, etc... and my new set of notes, which were also not written under duress of trying to keep up with the teacher, were much better written. The se…

+1 on the v2.0 note creation - I did the same thing consistently throughout my CS program and it worked very well for me.

I used the new notes as a kind of optimized cheat sheet during test preparation - rapidly reviewing theory in my head and cross checking. I would do this for some strategically chosen homework assignments as well - and explore slight modifications to these assignments to see how answers might change.

Many years later - I sometimes refer to the notes to refresh my mind on theory I feel I'm rusty on.

Re: A Learning Secret: Don't Take Notes with a Laptop (2014)

#235

Post by jt0 » Tue, Jun 25, 2019, 8:48 PM UTC

Any good suggestion for a handwriting to digital transcription workflow? I'm peripherally aware of specialized notepads that do this, but don't know how well they work. I guess scanning paper notes for conversion would be another option. Having a searchable, org-mode integrated record that can include diagrams would be awesome. Is OCR for cursive writing pretty reliable?

Re: A Learning Secret: Don't Take Notes with a Laptop (2014)

#236

Post by nvarsj » Tue, Jun 25, 2019, 9:27 PM UTC

Okay, so I started an MS (OMSCS) a couple years ago, and I had to relearn now to study. So I've gone through this process recently.

So far I've managed to get usually the top score or very close to the top on all my exams across 5 classes. In my most recent class I got the top score of 96 on an exam where the median was in the 60s.

All I do is take hand written notes (albeit digitally on an ipad) during lectures. Then before the exam, I review my notes. That's it! My recall with this approach has been great.

I admit though, having the lecture videos online is a massive help for this method. I watch at 1.5x and frequently pause it if I miss something, or re-watch a section if I didn't understand it the first time - then take my notes. I always had trouble with real-time lectures in my undergrad.

Re: A Learning Secret: Don't Take Notes with a Laptop (2014)

#237

Post by alan_n » Tue, Jun 25, 2019, 10:27 PM UTC

I'm actually looking to switch to digital from handwritten notes. Just need to find a (phone) app that lets me write and take photos for diagrams at the same time (anybody know any good ones?) instead of having to be switching between the notes and the camera. I've done handwritten notes for years but they have several problems for me: they get lost, i end up with notes scattered across whatever pieces of paper where closest to me, my fast handwriting is awful and i can't read it after some time, they end up getting "transcribed" anyways (which takes a long time).

Usually my workflow is: take notes, if I can avoid things I know are in the book, I will, then a week or so before exams I'll read everything (book+notes_ and make flashcards in Anki. I know I can do 25 pages (of a book) a day comfortably so I'll time it appropriately. Then I proceed to cram for a day or two until I can realiably do the whole deck with ease. This usually takes me less time (1/2 usually) than the reading/making hence why I want to switch to digital notes, to avoid a step. Most of the material that's tested for usually doesn't need to be memorized, which irritates me to know end, but what can I do. So I cram so I can promptly forget.

I find concepts are either understood or not understood, they do not need to be memorized. Things that are usually tested for (at least where I live / for what I'm studying) tend to be facts/procedures. At the end of the year I extract these from my notes / anki cards for future reference.

One other thing I do is the flashcards are written exactly how I will answer the question 90% of the time, sometimes in my own words, sometimes extracted right from the book. Before when I studied in English I didn't do this because I'm comfortable with the language, but because I'm studying in another language now, often the wording is the hardest part (also in part why reading takes me so long). This way I don't have to worry about that. Also this makes exams go lightning fast. I'm always first to leave.

Re: A Learning Secret: Don't Take Notes with a Laptop (2014)

#238

Post by scarejunba » Tue, Jun 25, 2019, 10:55 PM UTC

Izkata wrote: post #220

scarejunba wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same here. I wonder if it's the courses we took. I did Mathematics and Computer Science. The only time I took notes it was a disaster. My notes were perfect, my recollection awful. I had to reread them to get any value. The rest of the time I just sat in class and paid close attention, rarely noting down to look up some lemma or the other. Way better results. Instant recollection. I can still remember the Nullstellen…

I actually fall into a third bucket, at least when it came to math courses: I'd attempt to work ahead of the instructor during the lecture, instead of just writing notes or just listening. Because of the way well-done math courses are structured, with topics building on each other, I was able to do this about half the time. Most importantly, any mistakes I made would be almost immediately corrected, so I never learne…

Right. That’s Mathematics/CS in general, right? The lecture is usually driven by the students progressing the proof. That’s bucket one, I think. I know most of us used scratch work but it wasn’t notes. It’s more like swap space than general disk. I rarely looked at scratch space again, though I preemptively held all those books with me.

Re: A Learning Secret: Don't Take Notes with a Laptop (2014)

#239

Post by dang » Wed, Jun 26, 2019, 6:50 AM UTC

robertAngst wrote: post #139

kendallpark wrote: post #27

My current (digital) handwritten note setup: - iPad Pro with (Gen 1 :sadface:) Apple Pencil. - Screen protector that gives a significant amount of friction to the screen so that it feels closer to paper. [1] - Goodnotes 5 or Notability (I use both--depends on the circumstances). [2] - A rule: iPad is solely a reading/studying/note-taking device. No keyboard, no social media apps. - Bonus: Twelve South BookBook case.…

>Apple >iPad >Apple >iPad Still in college? DId your parents buy you, your computers?

Would you please stop posting unsubstantive comments to HN so we don't have to ban you again?

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: A Learning Secret: Don't Take Notes with a Laptop (2014)

#240

Post by chlorophyl » Wed, Jun 26, 2019, 6:54 AM UTC

This is actually not true for me. I recently entered medical school after 20 years being a programmer. I find that typing notes while listening to the lecture is best for me. Then after I return home, I re-read the notes and retype it again without referencing it to see how much i remember.

I tried writing my notes by hand but I found it too distracting. I write decently fast but I find myself missing the points of the lecture because I am trying to remember them in order to write them.

For me typing my notes is more convenient and not distracting at all since I'm a fast typist and the act of typing is instinctive for me. I find typing allows me to concentrate on the lecture by listening and yet being able to put the lecture points in writing fast enough.

I tested both methods prior to one of my midterm exams, I get a much higher grade on the subjects where I listen to the lectures while typing my notes than on the ones I listen to while writing by hand. Most of my exams are 2-3 hr handwritten essays.