Is it better to take notes in college with traditional pen and paper or a laptop with OneNote, etc?

Question

Is it better to take notes in college with traditional pen and paper or a laptop with OneNote, etc?

Answer 1

I prefer using a pen and paper.  it too much hassle to drag a lap top from class to class everyday and set it up.  Also the battery dies at the worst time, and if your computer crashes, nothing can be done to retrieve the notes you've lost. At least if you lose a notebook you can always get the notes from someone, and you won't be that annoying kid typingawayy and distracting others with the keyboard.

Answer 2

It depends on the subject for me.  For classes like math and science (particularly chemistry and physics, which involve a lot of math and diagrams and things like that), I prefer pen and paper (actually, pencil and paper because I usually need to erase something) because it's a lot faster to write out an equation or whatever than try typing it out.  

But for classes like history and English, I prefer a laptop with OneNote because I type more quickly than I can hand-write, and laptop notes are more easily formatted later.  It's really personal preference when it comes down to it.  

Here's a tip, though: if you're using a laptop to take notes in class, turn off your wireless internet.  You'll save battery power, and you'll be less tempted to surf the net while you're supposed to be taking notes.  

Answer 3

if you have enough discipline then a laptop is the way to go.

If you easily get distracted and lose focus then you should probably stick to pen and paper

Answer 4

I've always used the pen/paper route.  

It's so much simpler since there's no advanced technology to fail on you at the worst time, and most of my coursework (engineering) has always had a lot of equations and drawings in it rather than just words.

Every now and then, if I knew all I was going to do in a class was take a bunch of notes in words and then would need to turn in something very similar to that typed (i.e. proof I went to listen to some talk), then I've brought my laptop.  Otherwise, no.  It's way too much of a hassle for what it's worth since I can read my own handwriting just as well as I can something that's typed.

Answer 5

I've always used pen and paper.  I noticed those that bring lap tops get distracted and end up surfing the web instead of taking notes !