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Comment by Jare | Hacker News Reader

I'm surprised they didn't try to get data on students who didn't take any notes at all. Back in the 90s I irritated quite a few college teachers by not doing any note taking - my ability to do handwriting has always been terrible and I absorbed much better by not doing it and then latching on to my friend's notes. Later on, taking notes on laptops proved a much better experience, and these days it's Markdown for the best results / effort (if I needed heavy math I'd have probably learned LaTex).

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I had a linear algebra course in college where I had to make the choice of take notes or pay attention. The professor had a really high-density style, filling multiple blackboards and inevitably turning his black suit to some form of gray by the end of class.

I usually opted for paying attention, trying to grok the key concepts rather than endless details.

This was much of math grad school for me. I have a remarkable ability: I can write down exactly what people said and process absolutely nothing, in beautiful cursive. Or I can listen.

Now that I know my subject much better, I can take notes & really get something out of it, because I can process the material at the same time.

after first year, my lecturers handed out the whole year's worth of notes (photocopy of something they wrote in the 60s...). you revise _before_ class and then listen and try ask just one _good_ question. having the goal of having to ask one good question works wonders. pity i didn't learn this tip until near the end of me degree...

For these cases, it'd almost be worth it to take a snap-shot (pic) of the blackboards.

I did that once back at university. It was also a linear algebra course. Of course, at that time there was no cellphones that took pictures, and I happened to be carrying a bulky camera with me.

Writing is something that has always been physically painful for me. Getting special permission to type on a laptop in high school was great and I had no issue with remembering any of the notes.

I didn't take notes either. I just put paper in front of me to show I'm not just daydreaming though. I watch a lecture like I watch a tv show. Its not hard to remember what happens in a tv show. And anything that's truly important or hard to remember was always either online or in the book or on the class blackboard page.

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