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What do people use in lectures?

glitterxsparkle

Do the majority of peope use laptops or writing pads?

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Reply 1

TKR

afaik, most people use pen and paper as laptops are too noisy?

Reply 2

Fluffy

Yup - pen and paper. Most lecturers do not allow laptops as if everyone bought them you wouldn't hear a thing!

Reply 3

nas7232

Fluffy

Yup - pen and paper. Most lecturers do not allow laptops as if everyone bought them you wouldn't hear a thing!

Do you have to write really fast in lectures or do they wait for the slow coaches to get stuff written down?

Reply 4

Fluffy

You learn to write fairly fast/invent a short hand and transcribe your notes after the lecture!

Reply 5

Helenia

Quite often you'll get given lecture handouts which you only have to annotate. It's perfectly possible to keep up doing that. On the rare occasions we've had to do without, I still generally manage to get a readable set of notes down. Nobody else would understand them though.

Reply 6

Fluffy

I hate relying on handouts, and always make notes (I think it helps the content to sink in) - although if it's a very speedy lecturer I usually just keep a 'running order' list and supplement my notes and the handout later.

Reply 7

AT82

University lectures are nothing at all like school/college they can be so past pace its impossible to write everything down, you're usualy given lecture notes which you're expected to annotate like Helenia said.

If you do have to write stuff down they usualy give you time to do that.

Reply 8

bs.uk

you could write the notes on paper then type them up on laptop/computer after..?

Reply 9

fabulous_darling

Eeeh! The replies to this thread bring me fabby news - I can yet again invest in a spangly new pencil case. I always find that the most exiting part of summer is stocking up on stationery ready for the next academic year. Pink and spangly shall be the theme for my stationery during my first year of university, actually.. that's been the theme for the past five years at school/sixth form. Oh well!

I really must remember to get a life sometime :p:

Reply 10

~Sam~

spangletastic

Lol I get excited about stationery shopping too :biggrin:

Reply 11

dobbs

Hmmmm there's a few things been said in this thread I don't agree with:

1. "Most lecturers don't allow laptops" - well, I don't know if there's been studies done in this, but in my experience at Durham Uni all of the Geography lecturers have been fine with people using laptops (though there is actually only one guy who uses a laptop and I could see it getting annoying if everyone brought them!)

2. "If there's a lot of stuff you'll get a handout" - again, not necessarily true...yes maybe more-so for art/social sciences but for science subjects you'll have to rely more on writing stuff down since most of the lectures are based around the lecture writing on the blackboard/whiteboard doing equations and chemical formulae and all that stuff - though also I do Geography and although we get handouts for some lectures, we don't for all of them.

Anyway, as someone said, you'll learn to create your own shorthand so that you can make notes quickly. Also, most of the powerpoint slideshows from my lectures get put onto the Durham University Network so that I can download them to look at later on :smile:

Reply 12

mousey

Does anyone record the lectures with a dictaphone? i'd ideally like to record the lecture, and make notes later, but i've heard a rumour that you can't record the lecturers due to copyright/plaguerism. Is this true? xx

Reply 13

Juno

mousey

My sister used to record hers! She had a bad back though, so couldn't write too good and the uni supplied her with the dictaphone specially.

Reply 14

trev

mousey

I might want to use a device to record the lectures. I want to convert them into a digital format that can be stored and read on the computer. Do you think an mp3 player that has a recorder would work?

Reply 15

john williams

mousey

This is what i was thinking of doing, but i suppose to hear properly you'd have to be at the front of the room and have a good dictaphone. Even if its not allowed if you just kept it on your desk, their not likely to find out.

Reply 16

ancientone

Most people in my lectures don't use laptops but I have seen them used, most use paper and pens. Some use a book, some loose leaf, depends on how you organise your filing. There is someone who records the whole lecture. Lecturers will often give notes, but these are usually copies of the slides they use - I've tried making notes on these but they aren't as useful for revision as my own notes. Really it's what works for you. One thing I would recommend is to develop your own style of shorthand that you can use. They won't stop to let you take notes, although they will spell out and give time on new and unusual spellings or references. People also swap notes after lectures if someone has missed a lecture. Incidentally my pet hate in lectures is the idiot who sits behind me and always talks all the way through. If they want to organise their social life then why can't they do it somewhere else and let me listen to the lecture.

Reply 17

martynwilliams

Two suggestions….

Do not under any circumstances take a laptop into a lecture, because you’ll get on everyone’s nerves, and become the class annoyance!!

I would suggest paper and a pen for lectures, when you write the info given to you, you’re more likely to remember it rather than sitting there letting a dictaphone do all the work for you!!

Reply 18

Kingspharm

Most people do it with a pen and pad, or don't bother to make notes and just sit and talk all through the lectures.

Personally, I use a laptop and I'm the only person in my year to do so - makes things easier for me as I can get things down quicker by typing than by writing. It's fanless so there's no fan noise, and you can't hear me typing over the other kids talking in the lecture.

As for the lecturers going too quickly, if people in our lectures can't get stuff down quick enough they just whinge out loud and the lecturer usually slows down to let them catch up.

Reply 19

hallucination

Maybe it's because I did Comp Sci but I'd say about 20% of those in my lectures had laptops or some kind of technical device (ipod with voice recording attachment, pda)...the lecturers didn't mind at all.