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Taking notes in mathematics lectures using LaTeX and Vim (2019)

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Re: Taking notes in mathematics lectures using LaTeX and Vim (2019)

#41

Post by adamisntdead »

I'm currently a mathematics undergraduate at Cambridge and there's quite a few students who live type notes in various different formats. I think that the majority of the learning curve comes when getting used to the format of writing in LaTeX, and once you have that down (so that typing both prose and mathematics takes little to no effort) you can type notes faster than you can write them - with the small exception of maybe matrices and certain advanced things which slow you down.

The benefit of having typed notes at least for me come from being able to search, having a good record of my own understanding of a course and also not having to rely on keeping handwritten notes safe. They also look pretty which is a bonus for studying from them.

Examples:

- Analysis I (which have been edited): https://adamkelly.me/files/ia-analysis-i/analysis-i.pdf

- Graph Theory (not edited but diagrams added): https://adamkelly.me/files/ii-graph-theory/graph-theory.pdf

As a side note, one other thing I do is write short 'handouts' on topics that I think I have something to say about. For example https://adamkelly.me/files/handouts/direct-products/direct-p....

Re: Taking notes in mathematics lectures using LaTeX and Vim (2019)

#42

Post by teruakohatu »

adamisntdead wrote: post #41

I'm currently a mathematics undergraduate at Cambridge and there's quite a few students who live type notes in various different formats. I think that the majority of the learning curve comes when getting used to the format of writing in LaTeX, and once you have that down (so that typing both prose and mathematics takes little to no effort) you can type notes faster than you can write them - with the small exception…

I am always in awe of people like you. I have no idea how someone can type \frac{}{} faster than I can draw a horizontal line (while listening to a lecturer), but I believe you.

Meanwhile I use Onenote. I don't have to worry about keeping notes safe, or the stress of trying to type at warpspeed. I would go with a Remarkable tablet but now with subscription pricing it's a non starter.

Re: Taking notes in mathematics lectures using LaTeX and Vim (2019)

#43

Post by antegamisou »

This is a very cool setup but in my experience not using pen-and-paper makes comprehension terribly inefficient, if not impossible, during class especially when it comes to subjects like math. Besides, even excessive note-taking can impede the learning process. Best is to pay close attention to what the lecturer says and occasionally write down a few key ideas.

Re: Taking notes in mathematics lectures using LaTeX and Vim (2019)

#44

Post by katzgrau »

antegamisou wrote: post #43

This is a very cool setup but in my experience not using pen-and-paper makes comprehension terribly inefficient, if not impossible, during class especially when it comes to subjects like math. Besides, even excessive note-taking can impede the learning process. Best is to pay close attention to what the lecturer says and occasionally write down a few key ideas.

I was going to say the same. I'd takes notes, but most of my attention was on the professor and what they were saying. When there was something I knew I wouldn't remember, that's when focused switched to taking good notes. Otherwise it consumes an awful lot of brain-powee/attention, and well, there's a textbook if you really want textbook style notes.

Re: Taking notes in mathematics lectures using LaTeX and Vim (2019)

#45

Post by tobmlt »

adamisntdead wrote: post #41

I'm currently a mathematics undergraduate at Cambridge and there's quite a few students who live type notes in various different formats. I think that the majority of the learning curve comes when getting used to the format of writing in LaTeX, and once you have that down (so that typing both prose and mathematics takes little to no effort) you can type notes faster than you can write them - with the small exception…

Great stuff! I am in awe of your beautifully done graphs.

For speed with, e.g. matrices like you say, but also more specialized course specific notation, could you build a set of quick functions for the topic of the day to aid note taking?

If set up your environment just so, you can repurpose really simple commands like the slash in “\this” to do some common but annoying thing like bold upright lettering or underbars or something. (I actually need to go look at latex to be sure what all you could make maximally parsimonious… it’s been a while and I mostly copy and paste my old commands around. Anyway, you probably already do this kind of thing.

Re: Taking notes in mathematics lectures using LaTeX and Vim (2019)

#46

Post by circularfoyers »

cole-k wrote: post #30

I'm always envious of people who have vim/emacs setups that appear so clean and functional. I just think to my cobbled-together vim setup which both had a long startup and was riddled with idiosyncrasies (both I'm sure caused by my own misconfiguration). I since have migrated to spacemacs, thinking that I could let people more competent than I do the brunt of configuration, but still I have managed to make the startu…

I'm the same in desiring a preconfigured setup. I think it's similar with how I like the same thing but for a tiling window manager like i3/sway. I suspect there might be a fair few who still prefer the vim or emacs environment that want a preconfigured setup with a basic level of configuration, as is commonly offered by a desktop environment.

I like leaving the configuration to someone who I know has a better understanding of all the offerings. I realise this may not appeal to someone who has strong opinions or similar level of understanding as these maintainers however.

I might mention, if you hadn't already been aware of it, that SpaceVim exists as well. I really like the concept of layers, the bundling of packages for different features for basic/simple configuration (both SpaceVim/Emacs have this).

Re: Taking notes in mathematics lectures using LaTeX and Vim (2019)

#47

Post by tobmlt »

teruakohatu wrote: post #42
adamisntdead wrote: post #41

I'm currently a mathematics undergraduate at Cambridge and there's quite a few students who live type notes in various different formats. I think that the majority of the learning curve comes when getting used to the format of writing in LaTeX, and once you have that down (so that typing both prose and mathematics takes little to no effort) you can type notes faster than you can write them - with the small exception…

I am always in awe of people like you. I have no idea how someone can type \frac{}{} faster than I can draw a horizontal line (while listening to a lecturer), but I believe you. Meanwhile I use Onenote. I don't have to worry about keeping notes safe, or the stress of trying to type at warpspeed. I would go with a Remarkable tablet but now with subscription pricing it's a non starter.

Latex specific ide \frac and auto fill. You can for sure get speedy with practice!

Those beautiful graphs now… I ended up using secondary programs to gen images (pdf or whatever) of graphs and such for latex to bring in the usual way. Not as good!

Re: Taking notes in mathematics lectures using LaTeX and Vim (2019)

#48

Post by Koshkin »

Somewhat off topic, the very need for students to take notes during a math lecture seems completely idiotic to me, in this day an age when a professor could just share the link to the handout with their students. The margins should be wide enough for the students to be able to “personalize” the notes (they have to study them later anyway, don’t they?), or the notes could be distributed in the source format to begin with.

Re: Taking notes in mathematics lectures using LaTeX and Vim (2019)

#49

Post by CDSlice »

Koshkin wrote: post #48

Somewhat off topic, the very need for students to take notes during a math lecture seems completely idiotic to me, in this day an age when a professor could just share the link to the handout with their students. The margins should be wide enough for the students to be able to “personalize” the notes (they have to study them later anyway, don’t they?), or the notes could be distributed in the source format to begin w…

As someone who is currently taking a math class, the point of taking notes isn’t to have a record of what was taught. Rather taking notes helps me concentrate on the lecture instead of having my mind wander and for whatever reason hand writing the notes helps the concepts sink into my memory better than just listening to the lecture and reviewing the handouts. A lot of times I’ll take notes and then throw them out in a few days because the handouts and textbook are better for actually reviewing the topics later and the notes have already served their purpose of helping me learn from the lectures.

Re: Taking notes in mathematics lectures using LaTeX and Vim (2019)

#50

Post by yodsanklai »

Koshkin wrote: post #48

Somewhat off topic, the very need for students to take notes during a math lecture seems completely idiotic to me, in this day an age when a professor could just share the link to the handout with their students. The margins should be wide enough for the students to be able to “personalize” the notes (they have to study them later anyway, don’t they?), or the notes could be distributed in the source format to begin w…

I don't think it's idiotic. Writing makes you think and remember better than just being passive.
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