Taking Notes - Handwritten or Typed? (1 Viewer)

[jacksonsteele]

Hi!

So I am just entering my year 12 course, and I am really trying to step up my game this year. Year 11 I really didn't put in much work or remember any of my content or study at all, so I am trying to really push myself at the moment. I want to be better at taking notes and I can't decide whether to do handwritten or typed. I know handwritten tends to be better for memorising, so for PDHPE I have been handwriting them all because there is lots to remember, and my teacher follows the syllabus so my notes stay nice and organised and in order. I would do handwritten for my other subjects, however, with my Studies of Religion class, my teacher is not following the order of the syllabus which is resulting in my notes being all over the place, would it be better to type them so I can rearrange everything and edit them easily? Or I could handwrite class notes and transfer them to digital notes later. Any recommendations?

If you do a mix of both handwritten and typed what subjects do you type/handwrite?
And if you do type your notes, how do you ensure you can actually memorise them, seeing as its much harder to remember typed notes?

Any help would be much appreciated!

 

[specificagent1]

Personally all my in class notes and work were done on hand writing and any extra notes I made for revision was typed. Idk i thought that it would be good to differentiate it.

 

[may22]

What I’m doing is writing my in-class notes and typing study notes. Closer to exams I reckon I’ll go and re-handwrite the most important parts from my typed notes, as well as anything I need to memorise or understand better

 

[nourished.]

What I’m doing is writing my in-class notes and typing study notes. Closer to exams I reckon I’ll go and re-handwrite the most important parts from my typed notes, as well as anything I need to memorise or understand better

Yep, this sounds perfectly fine.

In both cases, the only thing that matters is that you regularly review your notes, as well as add new things you come across along the way.

 

[YourLocalDumbAss]

Handwriting notes is better than typing them. In our science classes our teacher makes us Summary notes during the holiday and when the exams come around we use those notes to guide us instead of reading a whole science based study guide or text book.

 

[BLIT2014]

Handwritten notes on pages that can be torn out and added to a file if they are out of syllabus order.

 

[dan964]

Hi!

So I am just entering my year 12 course, and I am really trying to step up my game this year. Year 11 I really didn't put in much work or remember any of my content or study at all, so I am trying to really push myself at the moment. I want to be better at taking notes and I can't decide whether to do handwritten or typed. I know handwritten tends to be better for memorising, so for PDHPE I have been handwriting them all because there is lots to remember, and my teacher follows the syllabus so my notes stay nice and organised and in order. I would do handwritten for my other subjects, however, with my Studies of Religion class, my teacher is not following the order of the syllabus which is resulting in my notes being all over the place, would it be better to type them so I can rearrange everything and edit them easily? Or I could handwrite class notes and transfer them to digital notes later. Any recommendations?

If you do a mix of both handwritten and typed what subjects do you type/handwrite?
And if you do type your notes, how do you ensure you can actually memorise them, seeing as its much harder to remember typed notes?

Any help would be much appreciated!

Main questions you have to be asking:

1. Length of time to make notes. Content heavy subjects like Biology, English, it is quicker to write revision notes typed but better to handwrite essays and do practice exams by hand (as practice for HSC)
   Maths notes (and diagrams for the sciences) are always better handwritten (unless you have mastery of Latex/Word equations).
   English notes are better typed except if I am just typing essays. Consider your note taking style as well.
2. Ease of reading notes. Handwritten notes are not recommended if you cannot read your own writing (illegible); if you do decide to type your notes, pick a reasonable font size and font (serif fonts or mono-spaced work well - the latter gives a typewriter kind of effect which is surprisingly easier to read)
3. Consider separating notes and class work. I found that especially for Maths and the sciences, it was handy to do my class work in a separate book, that way any mistakes made don't ruin the notes.
4. If you have subjects where you are going to be editing later, typed is superior to paper. Typed is also more portable and durable; provided you are making good use of cloud backups and autosave (in Word/OneNote)

For written notes, consider:

• The size of book. A4 is superior than A5 in most subjects (except for some subjects where a sketchpad is better). Good to have a book with removable pages.
• White lined paper is better (if has a margin great). The blank white lined paper pads are pretty useful especially for assignments.
  I'm personally not a fan of books with hole punching but if that is your thing go for it.
  Best to keep subjects separate book.
• The pen you use. If the lined paper uses blue, then black pen is superior. A felt tip pen (0.4 mm) is fairly good. Make sure your pen does not smudge but is inky enough that the writing is dark enough to read.
• Make use of coloured pens and highlighters - underline or colour differently key words and headings. But don't overdo it, keep it simple, use maybe 2 colours at most in additional to the black pen. You can even pick a colour for each subject. For languages I used black for the language and blue for the English translation and for Chemistry, I used blue as the highlight colour; and for Physics, it was purple; English was green.

For typed notes:

• The program you use. OneNote is great for taking notes in a hurry e.g. class notes (unless you have some file naming system for your Word documents). Word is superior if you are creating a set of notes for revision e.g. English. Latex is also good if you are quick - although usually I end up writing notes first in Word or handwriting before resorting to Latex)
• The font and font-size. Change from the default Calibri. Palatino Linotype or the Latin Modern fonts are my recommendation, although a mono-spaced font. (Cambria, Times New Roman, Garamond, Century Gothic and Tw Cen MT are another good choices). Font size is up to you. I used font size 10 a lot, mainly because I wanted to jam as much text in the one page. Font size 12 is recommended for most cases.
• Consider page margins. I used narrow margins to not waste space when printing, but often custom margins are better (leave a larger right margin allows you annotate on a printed copy of the notes)
• Print a copy of the notes to revise. I printed 4 pages on the one piece of paper so it meant for a summary revision notes for english, I was only looking at 4 pages (one double-sided, 2 on a page, landscape, per module)
• Don't waste time constantly reformatting notes. Find a theme/style that works for you and stick with it.

When I did it was easy to just use the syllabus dot points and write a bit of information under each. You could print the syllabus on 2 on a page, landscape, with the second page blank.

See also: https://community.boredofstudies.or...ite-or-type-notes-for-year-12-or-both.396313/
and https://community.boredofstudies.org/threads/making-good-study-notes.394630/

I might create a stickied thread and copy all the good suggestions when I have time.

 

[YourLocalDumbAss]

Main questions you have to be asking:

1. Length of time to make notes. Content heavy subjects like Biology, English, it is quicker to write revision notes typed but better to handwrite essays and do practice exams by hand (as practice for HSC)
   Maths notes (and diagrams for the sciences) are always better handwritten (unless you have mastery of Latex/Word equations).
   English notes are better typed except if I am just typing essays. Consider your note taking style as well.
2. Ease of reading notes. Handwritten notes are not recommended if you cannot read your own writing (illegible); if you do decide to type your notes, pick a reasonable font size and font (serif fonts or mono-spaced work well - the latter gives a typewriter kind of effect which is surprisingly easier to read)
3. Consider separating notes and class work. I found that especially for Maths and the sciences, it was handy to do my class work in a separate book, that way any mistakes made don't ruin the notes.
4. If you have subjects where you are going to be editing later, typed is superior to paper. Typed is also more portable and durable; provided you are making good use of cloud backups and autosave (in Word/OneNote)

For written notes, consider:

• The size of book. A4 is superior than A5 in most subjects (except for some subjects where a sketchpad is better). Good to have a book with removable pages.
• White lined paper is better (if has a margin great). The blank white lined paper pads are pretty useful especially for assignments.
  I'm personally not a fan of books with hole punching but if that is your thing go for it.
  Best to keep subjects separate book.
• The pen you use. If the lined paper uses blue pen, then black pen is superior. A felt tip pen (0.4 mm) is fairly good. Make sure your pen does not smudge but is inky enough that the writing is dark enough to read.
• Make use of coloured pens and highlighters - underline or colour differently key words and headings. But don't overdo it, keep it simple, use maybe 2 colours at most in additional to the black pen. You can even pick a colour for each subject. For languages I used black for the language and blue for the English translation and for Chemistry, I used blue as the highlight colour; and for Physics, it was purple; English was green.

For typed notes:

• The program you use. OneNote is great for taking notes in a hurry e.g. class notes (unless you have some file naming system for your Word documents). Word is superior if you are creating a set of notes for revision e.g. English. Latex is also good if you are quick - although usually I end up writing notes first in Word or handwriting before resorting to Latex)
• The font and font-size. Change from the default Calibri. Palatino Linotype or the Latin Modern fonts are my recommendation, although a mono-spaced font. (Cambria, Times New Roman, Garamond, Century Gothic and Tw Cen MT are another good choices). Font size is up to you. I used font size 10 a lot, mainly because I wanted to jam as much text in the one page. Font size 12 is recommended for most cases.
• Consider page margins. I used narrow margins to not waste space when printing, but often custom margins are better (leave a larger right margin allows you annotate on a printed copy of the notes)
• Print a copy of the notes to revise. I printed 4 pages on the one piece of paper so it meant for a summary revision notes for english, I was only looking at 4 pages (one double-sided, 2 on a page, landscape, per module)

When I did it was easy to just use the syllabus dot points and write a bit of information under each. You could print the syllabus on 2 on a page, landscape, with the second page blank.

For typed notes, consider your program.

See also: https://community.boredofstudies.or...ite-or-type-notes-for-year-12-or-both.396313/
and https://community.boredofstudies.org/threads/making-good-study-notes.394630/

I might create a stickied thread and copy all the good suggestions when I have time.

Well said, specially at 1am

 

[jacksonsteele]

thank you so much that’s very helpful! i think i will definitely be typing my notes then for some subjects.

 

[GoldenMelon]

I personally typed all my notes and I felt like it has worked fine for me. What’s matters more is constantly going back to revise and add to those notes you have made. If you can get into a good habit of regularly reviewing your notes then you will find that the information sticks in your mind, no matter whether you hand-wrote or typed those notes

 

[pineapples_go_on_pizza]

Hi!

So I am just entering my year 12 course, and I am really trying to step up my game this year. Year 11 I really didn't put in much work or remember any of my content or study at all, so I am trying to really push myself at the moment. I want to be better at taking notes and I can't decide whether to do handwritten or typed. I know handwritten tends to be better for memorising, so for PDHPE I have been handwriting them all because there is lots to remember, and my teacher follows the syllabus so my notes stay nice and organised and in order. I would do handwritten for my other subjects, however, with my Studies of Religion class, my teacher is not following the order of the syllabus which is resulting in my notes being all over the place, would it be better to type them so I can rearrange everything and edit them easily? Or I could handwrite class notes and transfer them to digital notes later. Any recommendations?

If you do a mix of both handwritten and typed what subjects do you type/handwrite?
And if you do type your notes, how do you ensure you can actually memorise them, seeing as its much harder to remember typed notes?

Any help would be much appreciated!

I personally prefer handwriting my notes for most of my subjects. But for content heavy ones like biology I get printed revision notes from sites such as this one or type them myself. Scientifically proven writing down stuff leaves an imprint on your brain.
Since you are beginning yr 12 there is probably no question of not having enough time rn therefore I would suggest using the typed /printed notes for revision before exam and scribble the notes you typed repeatedly onto pieces of paper until you can recite it like a parrot. Disclaimer : This is a technique only to be used for subjects like biology or definitions and things to be rote learned in any subject.

 

[jacksonsteele]

I personally typed all my notes and I felt like it has worked fine for me. What’s matters more is constantly going back to revise and add to those notes you have made. If you can get into a good habit of regularly reviewing your notes then you will find that the information sticks in your mind, no matter whether you hand-wrote or typed those notes

awesome thanks! when you say going back and revised your notes was that just reading over them?

 

[GoldenMelon]

awesome thanks! when you say going back and revised your notes was that just reading over them?

Yeah I just read over them and try to remember key points. Make sure to make your notes concise and neat so that it’s easier for you to review later on. A lot of the times you might also find that your understanding of something improves overtime so it’s much easier to edit your typed notes than handwritten ones. If you do economics like me then you will find that you need to constantly be revisiting your notes due to the amount of content but also because you need to keep all your stats up to date

 

[souli]

Personally all my in class notes and work were done on hand writing and any extra notes I made for revision was typed. Idk i thought that it would be good to differentiate it.

Did you keep up when you were hand-writing everything?

 

[Protectoratus]

I guess it depends on the class. For stuff that's heavy on memorization, like flashcards for history or bio, there's something about writing it out by hand that helps it stick in my brain. But for classes with tons of info, like lectures in psych, my laptop is a lifesaver for keeping up.

Anyone else out there switch between the two? Or maybe you have a totally different method? I'd love to hear what works for you!

By the way, if you're looking for some cool online tools to help you with note-taking, check out notesonline.com. They've got a bunch of features that might be useful!