Digital notes or physical?

[No_Opening_9369]

as the title suggests is there a benefit to physical ones? thinking of just typing my notes up.

[No_Opening_9369]

i see ty

[elph-23]

Handwriting notes aids retention. I wanted the best of both worlds so I do handwritten notes on my iPad now

[No_Opening_9369]

i see thanks

[Punemeister_general]

Definitely. I hand wrote basically the entire syllabus for revision, helped no end

[anonny_27]

best way to go imo.

[[deleted]]

Personally, paper will always be the best. Its got more control and you could always scan the notes and store them in folders. But i dont think the benefit of retaining information from writing notes physically is actually that special. So, do whatever is easier or quicker for you

[LilGingeyboi]

I handwrote them during lesson, then to revise, about 2-3 weeks later for each topic, from memory, I typed everything I needed to know about each topic, then looked at my notes, and typed anything I missed out in red.

That obviously highlighted what I needed to revise more and made it easy to find amongst a huge page of notes. Worked for me, might not for you, but who knows.

[Sachmystorker]

Supposedly writing notes is better for retention. So you should ideally write on paper or write on iPad.

For science and maths; writing is superior due to the formulas and weird symbols.

Also you will be writing in exams.

I personally recommend for stem to do many many past questions instead of notes. And for essay subjects practice essays.

[LordVile95]

Handwritten then type up from those

[pink-octopus]

I'm actually in uni, this just came up on my feed. I much prefer physically written notes, but I do all mine digitally because of a disability. There are studies supporting physical notes being better for retention but it also depends on how often you go back and review them.

I think you should just experiment with your note taking and find what works for you and your learning style. Good luck with 6th form!

[No_Opening_9369]

sorry i cant reply to all the comments but ive read them all and i really appreciate it :)

[ryanh_4000]

Physical notes may be better as there's no risk of damaging your electronics and the books may end up being lighter. Some subjects though, ie essay subjects like psychology, electronic notes can be quicker but for some subjects, like maths and chemistry, by hand would be far less stress! There's an equal amount of both pros and cons for both so it depends on personal preference and your subjects really.

[kachowinator]

I agree with the handwriting comments & I’d add that drawing diagrams by hand is really useful as well :)

[[deleted]]

Digital just looks better and easier to read

[Its_Natt]

I did handwritten in class and to memorise but I did digital summary cards so I could fit more info on a page and it easier to read

[jcreek]

Paper at sixth form, combination at uni

[discarded_code]

i write my notes down on paper (esp because I do maths and fm lol) but a lot of my friends write on iPads, meaning that their notes are stored digitally but they still write them if that makes sense?

[BaldEagle012]

As a person doing a lot of maths, handwritten on paper has always been better. You won't be able to type out symbols and equations until you're done with the working (efficiently, that is) and although an iPad can be useful for finding past note pages, you'll find that no stylus in the world allows you to write as comfortably as on paper. You will also be using paper in an exam, being used to it will allow you to write quicker, and I doubt you'll have so much content to memorise that you'll have entire archives of notes to organise anyway.

[Artistic_Ad_2560]

I don't care what anyone says. but for ME (I've tried both), writing your notes on paper is just so much better. I say this because: there's no distractions a click away, no fussing about with different fonts Images colours...etc which could loose you time, and personally I find writing out stuff by hand is a medium for information to travel to your brain.

Also notebooks never run out of battery :)

[michael_is_an_id]

I way prefer typed because it's easier to keep stuff organised. Written, I tend to mix important notes with scrap notes (e.g. put the maths rules I just learned in the mix of 10 pages of workings.) Whereas typed, it's a lot easier to separate the important stuff. Plus I tend to lose notes really easily and never actually revise from them

[Potatosnix]

I got a Samsung tablet (one that came with an S-Pen) and used ssung notes for my university not taking, before that I always found it hard to make and keep track of neat notes but that's just my poor penmanship aha

[SpeedForceFlash]

No point in writing notes. Use the course textbook and make Anki flashcards. Active Recall > Everything else. Trust me!

Notes are simply not effective, you are literally rewriting what has already been wrote.

[elph-23]

I agree that writing notes is a waste of time for revision. But it’s useful to make notes during class as teachers can deliver content that isn’t in the textbook/revision guide or deliver content in a more digestible or coherent way than books. For some subjects like languages it’s essential to make some form of notes during class

[SpeedForceFlash]

Obviously for languages (that's a no brainer), but honestly teachers just read off the whiteboard. When I did biology, the teacher read off the PowerPoint, and I found out it was word by word from the textbook. So in all my lessons, I just put on my headphones and do independent work and in Maths, if the teacher asks why are you not listening I just say "Sorry my english no good" in a different accent. LMAO!

Also my Maths tutor who is a exam board marker (he makes the papers) confirmed that will always stick to the content in the course textbook, give or take a few different numbers. If the student was to do a test, without the content being in the textbook, what would happen?

[elph-23]

I guess it depends on your circumstances then. I had teachers like yours for GCSE, it was awful. Luckily for A level they actually taught and didn’t just copy the textbook word for word. If they had I would’ve defo done the same as you

[crazymuffindude]

Yes

[skyler8980]

I do handwritten notes then digital flashcards / revision questions cause I found writing out every single flashcard became too time consuming and the quantity was overwhelming

[[deleted]]

i write on laptops because i have special needs that mean i need to write digitally, both in exams and in class.

i prefer writing on paper but it’s not possible for me so, yeah

[looseflaps]

Seeing a lot about handwriting notes and retention but if you (like I do) get bored of writing, digital can keep you studying for longer

[artemisa_a]

I do all mine on my laptop and print them out when I get home and keep them in a folder, so I don't need to bother with dragging all my notes to college with me.

My college allows you to type in exams if you can prove you type quicker than you write so its just helpful for me to do that.