Hand written notes are often a poor choice of study material.  Let’s look at three reasons briefly.

Photo source

1. Lost in translation

When taking notes in a classroom you are often rushed and multi-tasking (listening and writing at the same time).  This means you are transcribing in real time.

Notes are like a first draft of an essay that you wrote all in one sitting with no backspace key on the keyboard.   It probably wouldn’t be a very good essay, and your notes aren’t a great explanation of the material either.  They are a rushed bumbling mess that you regurgitated onto paper as fast as you could.

Contrast this to the “original source” which is typically the text book or a hand out from the teacher.  It’s been through dozens of revisions, scrutinized by editors, etc.  Even if it’s not very good it’s a masterpiece compared to your notes.  It’s always more reliable to go to the “original source”.

Interesting side note: if the book or handout are incorrect, you can use this to your advantage when discussing your grade with the teacher.  If your own notes are wrong, you’re out of luck.

2. They’re written by hand

Hand writing is prone to errors.  You’ll often find yourself deciphering what you wrote, or unsure about certain words.  “What did I mean there?”  Your charts are crooked and don’t quite fit on the page.  Enough said.

3. When you’re writing notes, you aren’t paying attention

For some reason schools have ingrained in us the image of a student furiously taking notes who is trying the hardest.  But could that person actually be doing themselves a disservice?

This interesting article on how to study points out:

Imagine trying to transcribe the dialog of your favorite television program
as you watched. Not particularly appetizing is it? You’d “miss” the show while you were ‘watching’ it, right?

So why do you go to class and attempt to word for word transcribe the Instructor’s lecture? “Into the Ear, down the arm, out the pen, bypassing the brain”, is how one Professor described the behavior of his students.

Most students are not “there” when the information is being dispensed. They are playing the role of stenographers who have little consciousness of what they are writing down.

So when should you take notes?

In my view there are only a few times where it makes sense to take notes.  First, if the teacher is giving you something that is most definitely not in the text book.  A great example of this would be if they give you a list of topics which will be on the exam.  That would be a good one to write down!  Secondly, I think it makes sense if you can take notes in a very passive sense.  Jotting down a keyword, underlining something on a handout, or even writing right in the book itself.  Certainly nothing that would even come close to a complete sentence though.  If you find yourself getting into stenographer mode, step back and know that your mental energy is better spent on understanding than it is on transcribing.

Got a homework tip to add? Want to contribute an article to over 3,300 readers of this blog?  Click here for more details and to submit a post.