Re:A Learning Secret: Don't Take Notes with a Laptop (2014)
by ExtremisAndy on Tuesday June 25, 2019 @03:22PM
(#20277870)
Oh, this is a brilliant idea that seems so obvious as I’m here reading it, but had never occurred to me before. Yes! I’ve always felt that my biggest problem in learning is that I never do anything to really verify I have a truly solid grasp of the material. I read, take notes, convince myself I have some level of understanding, and pat myself on the back for achieving that much. But I’ve got a feeling that if I’d overcome my laziness enough to read, take notes, reflect on my notes, then write a more polished version 2.0 of them as you mentioned, I would definitely take my conceptual understanding to a much deeper level. Thank you for this!
Re:A Learning Secret: Don't Take Notes with a Laptop (2014)
by buxtehude on Tuesday June 25, 2019 @03:29PM
(#20277944)
+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.
The second set was always much cleaner, much better organized, and much more deeply ingrained in my brain.
As an aside, when I went to college, my first semester Computer Science teacher was vehemently anti-notetaking in class. He would chastise people who were taking notes either on their laptops, or in notebooks, saying "The slides will be online!" I really struggled that first semester, and found it hard to pay attention, hard to retain the information, hard to even understand what he was talking about, and it took me awhile to realize just how powerful the act of taking notes was.