How essential is a laptop and voice recorder for success in college?

Question

I will be starting college tomorrow but I don't have a laptop or voice recorder yet. If I need to take notes, I will have to do it, the old fashioned way by pencil and paper. Hopefully sometime later, I will get a laptop and voice recorder, but I'm just wondering if people use their laptop and voice recorder a lot in college.

Answer 1

umm use pen and paper i dont know why you think you need a laptop, wait to see what you do in your classes atleast before you spend that much money on something you dont need.

Answer 2

It would be nice to have, but plenty of people have gotten by without t/

Laptop use and recorder use is extremely common. You can take notes faster, or just record an entire lecture and review it later on. Using a pen and paper could hinder you speed and effectiveness. You should strongly consider getting a cheap tape recorder from Wal-Mart to at least record somethings incase you miss something writing it all down, which you probably will. It won't cost anymore than $20.

Save up for a laptop. You don't have to get anything expensive. Acer computers are nice and are extremely inexpensive ($400) compared to a Dell which will run upwards of $800 to get just the basics.

Get the tape recorder as soo as you can, but the laptop on hold until Christmas. Just be extra careful to pay attention.

Answer 3

Laptops will help you take notes faster and quicker, in a more organized fashion. With a voice recorder, you can record lectures of your professors. They both are very essential and beneficial for college. Well anyways good luck in college :)

Answer 4

A laptop will be helpful, but definitely isn't necessary in a lecture type of class. I WOULD, however, recommend a recorder. When I was an undergrad I had some profs who talked so fast there was no way for me to write out my notes and still catch everything they were saying. With the recorder I was able to have it on while I took notes, and then I could go over the recording and see what, if anything, I missed while I was writing.

As far as a laptop goes, I didn't need it for any work IN class, but it sure made doing homework, paper writing and research a lot more convenient.

Answer 5

I think they're probably things it's nice to have, but certainly not essential for doing well.

Writing notes by hand will actually help them sink in-using a lap top or a recorder will mean you won't necessarily be paying attention as much as you would if you're using a pen and paper.

Answer 6

Notes are better.  If you write it, you make more of a connection with the material and you have to pay attention.  Voice recorders allow you to doss too much.  Laptops are handy for writing papers on campus but are definitely not essential, no matter what the PC World ads tell you.  I never had a voice recorder and I only got my laptop in my last semester and I made it through just fine!