{"id":38413,"date":"2019-06-25T07:45:25","date_gmt":"2019-06-25T11:45:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/?p=38413"},"modified":"2019-09-07T22:42:57","modified_gmt":"2019-09-08T02:42:57","slug":"note-taking-handwritten-vs-typed-notes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/2019\/06\/25\/note-taking-handwritten-vs-typed-notes\/","title":{"rendered":"Note taking: Handwritten vs Typed Notes"},"content":{"rendered":"There\u2019s nothing I love more than having aesthetic notes\u2026 or so I thought.\r\n\r\nFor as long as I have been a student, I've always written my notes by hand; this didn't change when I entered my first year at U of T. Everyday, I came home and summarized the lecture notes in my notebook. I made my notes look as nice as possible; I drew diagrams, highlighted key points, and used as many colours as possible.\r\n\r\n<figure id=\"attachment_38415\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-38415\" style=\"width: 169px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2019\/06\/IMG_5129.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-38415 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2019\/06\/IMG_5129-169x300.jpg\" alt=\"Handwritten notes on a notebook, pens, and a book labelled &quot;Adaptation &amp; Biodiversity&quot; on a table\" width=\"169\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2019\/06\/IMG_5129-169x300.jpg 169w, http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2019\/06\/IMG_5129-576x1024.jpg 576w, http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2019\/06\/IMG_5129.jpg 750w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 169px) 100vw, 169px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-38415\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Handwritten notes for my biology class<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\nAfter a while, I discovered that I was spending way too much time on making my notes (when I should actually be studying the content!). I knew I had to adjust my method of note taking, so I switched to typing my notes. Here are my thoughts on handwritten notes versus typed notes.\r\n\r\n<strong>Typing notes is easier and saves a lot of time<\/strong>\r\n\r\nThis of course, was my main incentive to switch from handwritten notes to typed notes, so I wasn\u2019t surprised to find that I did in fact, spend less time on making my notes. I didn\u2019t have to spend time trying to make every letter perfect or wait for the whiteout to dry (it never does). I didn\u2019t have to spend time trying to come up with a creative way to make my writing mistake seem like it was intentional (again, it never does).\r\n\r\nI also found that typing notes was much easier than writing, especially when it came to diagrams! It was much more convenient to save an online picture from the textbook and include it into my notes, compared to spending half an hour trying to draw a something that *somewhat* resembles a plant cell.\r\n\r\n<figure id=\"attachment_38417\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-38417\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2019\/06\/IMG_3897.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-38417 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2019\/06\/IMG_3897-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2019\/06\/IMG_3897-300x225.jpg 300w, http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2019\/06\/IMG_3897-768x576.jpg 768w, http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2019\/06\/IMG_3897-1024x768.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2019\/06\/IMG_3897.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-38417\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">typed notes for my biology class<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n<strong>Handwritten notes are more effective <\/strong>\r\n\r\nThe ease of being able to copy and paste lecture\/textbook notes into my own notes caused me to do just that; I found that my study notes were essentially a replica of the textbook, which was not useful to study from.\r\n\r\nSince handwritten notes take longer, I tend to summarize readings more effectively to avoid writing too much. During this process of summarizing the textbook into my own words, I was more likely to recall that information during the test.\r\n\r\n<figure id=\"attachment_38418\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-38418\" style=\"width: 225px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2019\/06\/IMG_7702.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-38418 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2019\/06\/IMG_7702-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"Handwritten notes and some pens \" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2019\/06\/IMG_7702-225x300.jpg 225w, http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2019\/06\/IMG_7702-768x1024.jpg 768w, http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2019\/06\/IMG_7702.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-38418\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">my study notes for biology<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<strong>The best method\u2026 a combination of both! <\/strong>\r\n\r\nAfter trying both typed and handwritten notes, I discovered that I like to use both methods of note taking. Currently, I type my lecture and textbook notes, then I hand write cue cards. This practice has been working really well for me since I\u2019m able to save time by typing my notes, while still effectively remembering key information through handwriting cue cards.\r\n\r\n<figure id=\"attachment_38420\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-38420\" style=\"width: 169px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2019\/06\/IMG_7876.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-38420 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2019\/06\/IMG_7876-169x300.jpg\" alt=\"Cue cards on top of some notes. A Starbucks cup in the corner. \" width=\"169\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2019\/06\/IMG_7876-169x300.jpg 169w, http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2019\/06\/IMG_7876-576x1024.jpg 576w, http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2019\/06\/IMG_7876.jpg 750w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 169px) 100vw, 169px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-38420\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">my cue cards and some quick study notes<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\nNo matter which way you decide to take notes, I hope you\u2019re able to find what way works best for you!","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-summary\">\n<div class=\"entry-summary\">\nThere\u2019s nothing I love more than having aesthetic notes\u2026 or so I thought. For as long as I have been a student, I've always written my notes by hand; this didn't change when I entered my first year at U&hellip;\n<\/div><div class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/2019\/06\/25\/note-taking-handwritten-vs-typed-notes\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &ldquo;Note taking: Handwritten vs Typed Notes&rdquo;<\/span>&hellip;<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div><div class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/2019\/06\/25\/note-taking-handwritten-vs-typed-notes\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &ldquo;Note taking: Handwritten vs Typed Notes&rdquo;<\/span>&hellip;<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"author":377,"featured_media":38414,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6669,1,58,67,68],"tags":[1905,105,193,176,172,25506,25507,89,237,696,441,1837,54],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38413"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/377"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38413"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38413\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38935,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38413\/revisions\/38935"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}