Note books for a Physics degree

I used lined or squared paper, I can never be as neat on blank paper

for maths modules what do you use? And what do most people use? I wasnt as neat on blank paper but I think its useful?

It really doesn't matter that much and I didn't do anything differently for different modules. This won't affect your success at uni lol

Rhodia dotpads ftw.

Just had a look at them... what in the ****ing world are they mate?

Square grid paper without the grid but with dots. Combines the freedom of blank paper with the rigidity of square grid paper.

Plus the paper quality will put everything else to shame.

As a dude doing Physics I really don't recommend ruled paper, unless you use a 0.05mm and are confident in your ability to fit huge formulae with powers and sigmas across a single line and within the rulings... I've tried that and I can guarantee that it isn't pleasant or productive ;-; It also makes your notes look pretty unruly, pardon the pun :P

If you try to force it over 2 lines instead of one, it just looks nasty because of the ruling going through the middle. If you do it over 3, that's just a waste of paper and space. Diagrams also look awful with ruled paper, because the rulings go through them.

The only other option you gave is the un-ruled paper, in which case you have no way to know you're working parallel to the page borders (you might end up doing it sideways, I sure do) and in general it leads one to not maintaining order or correctly formatting your work/etc... you're going to be pushing hundreds to thousands of lines of equations, many of them leading on from each other, supported by diagrams and whatnot... having a grid or rulings to maintain order is a necessity :-;

I've tried dozens of paper brands and styles, Quo Vadis to Tomoe River, from Seyes to Isometric, and I can guarantee you that ruled and un-ruled paper are together joint last for use on anything that combines equations + words + diagrams/graphs.

I can write on unruled pages easily. I was thinking of getting those for maths anyway.

How many would you recommend for first year? And what kind of notebooks for lab work?

I use dot for everything, lab included :P Although our lecturers are pushing us to digitise our lab notes/etc using laptops, sadly. I'm an old-school guy though so I stick to paper c:

I usually use 240 sheets (3 books) per subject per semester. One for notes, the other two for questions and answers. Safe bet imo, and any leftover can be used for next sem. Assuming 4 subjects per semester, that requires 24 notebooks over the year.

You only need one book for labs unless you write huge and use loads of paper (per Sem) although I doubt you'll have to do many of those in 1st year.

wait which uni are you at? And how many did you use in first sem ?

Ill be starting at KCL btw, just so you know. I am planning on buying long notebooks, 160 sheets and gonna buy 10 of those. Is that ok?

Anyone think that maybe we’re over thinking this. Try a few things and see what works for you. Maybe lined where the lines are slightly fainter or whitelines?