Did You Take Notes in School?

[inignot]

I remember when I was in high school, if I took notes at all, once I wrote them down, I never looked at them again. It seems that once I wrote down whatever it is I was studying, I remembered it (at least long enough for the test to be taken anyway). In college I don't remember taking notes for anything because the grades didn't really matter. On a side note, I still have not had to find the area under the curve in real life. :)

[Arioch]

I take notes but when the exam comes I just read the text book.

[CeSoirNoir]

I always take notes..I only read them again if I am going to have a test or if I'm rewriting them again.

[EternalCynic]

Yeah, I took notes.. but also, never had to look at them again.

[Groty]

Yeah, I took notes.. but also, never had to look at them again.
I would do the same. It made the teacher think I was paying attention.

[mgb]

I think writing down what the teacher/prof said helped me remember more than looking over the notes later did.

I think my favorite notes were the ones I took as I was dozing off to sleep.

[CosmicDust]

I took lots of them. As mgbradsh said, the memory enhancement of writing them down was helpful. For some classes, though, the notes basically were my textbook, or else were a major source of info of value for doing homework, which was the meat of the class. Even the finals in grad school were usually homework assignments - i.e., open book. In classes where the exams weren't open book but you could make a cheat sheet, notes were a useful resource for cheat sheet construction.

[codeElemental]

I always started out taking notes, but never managed to take any useful ones after the first few classes. Normally my notebooks ended up being a strange amalgamation of doodles, unrelated thoughts, fiction, calculations or charts, none of which related to the topic at hand.

[athman]

Same here. I do take notes, but I write much less than others.

Sounds like some of us are frugal note takers. If so, the good news is that we get more mileage out of writing pens. If only I didn't forget where I put them all the time.

... which nearly gets me on to the subject of umbrellas, but thats another story.

[Warrior413]

I take notes just for something to do. I never use them though.

[Sackanaka]

I take massive amounts of notes for my animal physiology and asian history classes, or else I'd surely get an F. As for the rest of my classes, I fall asleep in. That's because I can get away with it; there's another source of notes I can look at later without having to write any.

[Boneca]

I always take very careful notes, especially now in university, but also back in high school. The reason for that is that if I don't take notes, my mind starts to wander. The very act of writing forces me to concentrate on what the teacher is saying.
On the other hand, I could just as well be writing in sand, because I know I'll never look at the notes again. Still, the fact that I actually forced myself to listen to the lecture means that I remember it.

[spirilis]

I took notes, but never read them ever again, just like you said.

Eventually I never took any notes. And I did just fine. Except in classes where I wasn't paying attention... that's where it hurt me HARD.
Bottom line is, if you're not paying attention, notes or not, you won't get it well enough to pull off the kind of miraculous test aceing I always became accustomed to doing.

[INTrPosr]

I remember when I was in high school, if I took notes at all, once I wrote them down, I never looked at them again. It seems that once I wrote down whatever it is I was studying, I remembered it (at least long enough for the test to be taken anyway). In college I don't remember taking notes for anything because the grades didn't really matter.
If I took notes, they were undecipherable because I doodled all over them. The only reason I would keep them was because of something I drew which I found decent work.

[Sugaraddict2702]

taking notes is indispensible at my school if you don't want an F for every single subject. Half of what the teachers say is not in the textbooks so... helps me to see the difference between dutch, french, english, german and latin though :wacko:

~°´sugaraddict`°~

[SheepDog]

Writing it down helps me remember. After that, I rarely even read my notes. I do note things when the teacher says "you might need to know this for the test."

[Witticism]

I take notes but rarely if ever reread the little bastards.

[Werdna]

I always take notes now in college, and even read them occasionally. Mostly because it helps me remember, and makes me think and understand things.
And in the boring, simple classes, I sit and doodle in the notebook as a way to stay awake.
Never took many notes in high school. Didn't really need to. But I always had my notebook with me, so half of it is full with drawings.

[ohnoaninfp]

I take notes, but then forget to read them. Oh well.

[Jezebel]

I'm definetely not the type who can just sit there and listen and remember everything the teacher said when it comes time to be tested. I remember things much better when I read them. That doesn't mean I always took notes... sometimes I'd just read someone else's or read the book instead and doodle during lecture. My notes usually turned into a big art project anyway rather than just being about learning. They had to be written very neatly and follow whatever organization I had chosen, or I'd throw away the paper and start over.

[Xenophon]

Never. When I take notes I can't concentrate on what the Professor is saying. When I try to read them later they don't make sense anyways. I have found that I do much better just trying to learn as much as I can in class and going to the text book when I need to study. This strategy also means that I generally don't have to study much, because I remember most of the stuff in class.

[Tekka]

I make detailed notes and diagrams in notebooks, but I never go back and read my notes. I pretty much always remember what I write. I just take the notes because it's better to be safe then sorry and I impress professors with my note taking. I'm ALWAYS making notes of EVERYTHING that is said or written down in classes.

[xavierd]

I'm the same way Xenophon. If I do try to take notes, usually in the beginning of a semester, I never look at them again.

[file cabinet]

I would take notes then not look at them again usually.

[jimkopelli]

I almost never took notes in high school... never really needed to. Got everything I needed by reading the book, usually during the time we were supposed to be taking notes.

[hemanthraz]

I almost never took notes in high school... never really needed to. Got everything I needed by reading the book, usually during the time we were supposed to be taking notes.

Thats true, what are the books for, if we write every goddamn thing thats already there. I would take notes in class to keep my mind from completely drifting off the topic, though i frequently used to and ended up with artwork and calligraphy down the sides of my book.And of course i had only 2 notebooks for all the classes[otherwise i would forget to bring the "notes"]

Another favourite thing was grafitti on the desks, i covered almost all of my desk. People used to say it looked like a tattoo parlour[haha]

[lauriep]

In college, I take lots of notes during lectures and when reading the textbooks. I don't read them again, but writing it down helps me to remember the information. Before a test, I'll do a quick review of the book, but that's usually about all.

I don't remember taking notes very often in high school.

[BritainOphira]

I have mastered the art of writing notes to my friends or drawing pictures in such a way that the teacher thinks I am taking notes over the material being presented while I am really drawing snails and complaining about how ignorant the teacher is and why what they are teaching is incorrect (two plus two is not five, or three, it is four, thankyouverymuch). (In Algebra One, the teacher used to point to me and say things like, "You want to know why she gets 100's on her tests? She is taking notes. Look! She is even writing now." Really I just doodled or slept for an hour and a half, as I had already had the same class two different times before, because of random scheduling problems.)
Occasionally I outline the chapter before it is going to be taught in chemistry, because the teacher I have really doesn't cover the material correctly or she ignores basic rules and does whatever she wants, while talking to me while facing a wall across the room from where I sit, but I never look at what I've written later. (The teacher's crazy, I just tend to ignore her, and nod my head whenever she does get my location correct.)

[waxwing]

In highschool, I really didn't take notes, except in math I would draw graphs. If it was a class where the teacher required a notebook to be handed in, I usually got a failing grade on it. Even so, I tried not to be rude about just sitting there and daydreaming. I'd usually be writing something or I'd have the appearance of being engaged. The funny thing is that usually when I had a thoughtful look on my face, I was thinking about some tangential idea. But teachers would sometimes call on me for that smile or furrowed brow....too funny. In college, I took notes when I wanted to remember a quote. I'd usually have to get the exact words down, or I'd scribble it out and continue to track the progress of my neighbor's infatuation with the soccer player across the classroom, or something to that effect.