One Note for Studying?

Hi All,

I have university exams coming up shortly (1st exam in 17 days) and I thought I might a)start the study a little early this year and b)try a different study technique.

Just to let everyone know, I don't consider myself an exemplar student by any means and in some classes I average around a b-. I am fine with that and as long as I pass knowing I put in 100% I am not too fussed about how well I do. There are some classes I like to get A's in but those are generally information systems related. I should also note that I am doing a b Com, majoring in Accounting and Information Systems.

In past years I generally just wrote down all the notes over the semester and compressed them into as less pages as I could. For calculations in some papers I would learn how to do them and just practice them. This semester I am taking only 1 paper with calculations in it.

I have decided to give One Note a go for compiling my notes as in previous semesters I find I never went back over the notes as my handwriting is bad and I find it difficult to search for specific things. One Note seems good and I am looking at a template for the Cornell Note taking method. I just wanted to know what people thought of this. Is it a waste of time? Am I better to just write by hand. Usually I just write notes out to memorize them and have something to look back at to refer to, I am not sure if typing notes out will mean that I won't memorize them as well etc.

Any ideas/suggestions etc?

 

I tried using OneNote last summer it didn't work out too well, I found writing easier and it helped me to remember as well.,

 

I would also be interested in knowing what the suggestions are to the OP's question. Though I am not a student in the sense he is, I do academic-related work and note-taking is important for me too. I got myself OneNote and sometimes scribbled on it, but I never found a comfortable way by which to use it and integrate it to my work and learning process.

Edit: As I said I was looking through a number of "how-to" type docs on One Note. Here is an example. And here is probably a better one. Here is one that lists the problems with using OneNote in a classroom context.

 

I also tried using One Note for a period of time and it just didn't work out. I found that writing things down helped me remember facts better. In terms of memorizing facts (such as dates and important events for history, functional groups in organic chem, vocabulary words for foreign language classes, or any other things you need to memorize for classes) I convert the information into flashcards and use a flashcard program called jMemorize.

 

Hmmm, seems the general consensus is that it doesn't work well. For me it's not so much memorizing dates that I need to do, its learning and remembering ideas. It seems quite a cool way to get my notes in a condensed form but I am not sure how well it will work etc. I think the way it organises the notes is not really important, its more the fact that I can search them and edit them easily. I think it also helps if you write slower, or read over what you are writing and perfect it so its not like you are just copying and pasting from a book. After I have done my notes I may try to handwrite them further to condense them - we'll see I guess.

 

I find One Note is better in a tablet notebook where you can take notes free hand with formulas and drawing charts. I also like the folders which you can create individually. I use One Note to compile my vacation informations.. flights, rentals and hotels. With a scanner it can probably be able to organize everything from documents to pictures.

 

OneNote is priceless on a tablet-pc. My girlfriend has it and I find myself borrowing it all the time. I love it.

 

OneNote is great for jotting down notes. I have used it for the past two years in uni. My only issue is basically a repeat of what several posters above said. I feel that I retain information better when i actually write it instead of quickly typing it. I dunno why but i do.

I think it would be a whole different story if i had a tablet and wrote my notes into onenote.

 

As many others already said I also have the feeling that I can better learn and remember things if I write them instead of typing.
You also have much more freedom if you write, you can add a little draft, highlight things, draw arrows to link to other things, ... create small mind maps, ...

OneNote:
I use a tablet PC and heavily used OneNote to take notes with the pen in the past. It's easy to use and somehow does its job. However, it's not that optimized for tablet PC use. It's also somehow buggy.
It's more optimized for things you consider to do with it. Collaborate informations, type down short notes, import small PDF pages, ..., in short, create a structured mess
However, what you want to do is to create a list of a lot of informations. I don't think that you'll add website snapshots, hyperlinks, ... to your document.
So it's possible that the good old Word is much better and faster for you, if you really want to type the things.

The advantage ON has is that you can freely place new text on your pages, but do you really need it?

PS: OneNote has very limited printing capabilities. Almost zero custom settings. I don't think that the ON developers intended that someone prints the stuff from OneNote.

 

Can OneNote work as an effective supplement to very large Word Docs - like manuscripts, which will not only involve Bibliographical notes, but also reference notes? Basically, what I am trying to do is to see if I can avoid using softwares like EndNote etc.

 

Use Word 2007. I take my laptop to every class and type my notes/equations. I actually remember things better that way plus I'm way more organized. When I study for exams and create equation/note sheets, all my info is right there on my laptop AND it's searchable. If I have to draw a diagram or something, I just use a piece of paper, date it, and stick it in my class folder. In my notes, i just write to reference that day's diagram(s). Hope that helps.

 

You could try out Evernote, which provides a neat way of making notes. Even better, it can be sync'd across several computers if you setup an account, and it can even perform OCR on images so you can find them later. It's handy for note taking, just like One Note is. And is free.

 

I've just opened up OneNote and I'm going to give it a try. Seems pretty good, who knows, it may not work as wanted, but at least it can fill in some time of my super important life. *rolls eyes*

 

One note can do all of that as well. Sync, OCR on images..etc. I can even search words from audios.

 

Ah, yes. One Note has that advantage. It's a big one, thats useful in the classroom.