BF2S Forums Going to University, what should I expect out of my laptop?

Shahter wrote:

unnamednewbie13 wrote:

There's an almost mnemonic quality to simply writing something out rather than clacking away at a keyboard. Sharing notes on a regular basis isn't doing anyone long-term favors.

this^. taking notes is a skill in itself. a very useful one.

I'd also like to revise that to "there is a mnemonic quality to simply writing something out rather than clacking away at a keyboard."

Often I don't remember all the stuff I've typed from one day to the next, but I can dig through my brain and find almost entire sheets of memorized written material. And if my memory's foggy about it, I can look at the sheet and what I was thinking about when I was writing comes back to me almost instantaneously, whereas I sometimes have to sit and puzzle out typed material.

OP: So even with a laptop at hand, I'd still recommend a pen and a notebook [paper ]. After awhile, you'll learn to write the important stuff down and save your hands/wrists the strain of writing out all the unnecessary grammar that goes along with it. If you haven't done much of it in school, you should probably read up on effective note-taking.

i only used my netbook for 1 course, that that was because i had the PDF and the netbook was 1.1KG and the book was 4KG. the book is XBOX huge

Last edited by menzo (2011-06-20 15:29:38)

profs ban laptops because a) they're fucking noisy, b) it's not much fun lecturing to the back of a laptop, c) the internet/computers are a huge distraction, whereas a pen and paper aren't (doodles notwithstanding). i'd be pissed too if i'd trained for 8 years to reach a lectureship position and then had to spend my days talking to a bunch of 18 year old morons engrossed in farmville and checking their facebook picture comments.

and i type about 4x faster than i write... that doesn't mean anything. when i write notes, they're absorbed better. touch typing is a mechanical action - thoughtless, easy, detached - whereas writing and formulating sentences with a pen somehow involves a little more engagement and cognition. don't quote me on the science behind that but i think newbie is onto something with his mnemonics-of-writing. there's a reason why people for years and years have recommended copying/re-writing notes as a primary revision technique.

Last edited by Uzique (2011-06-21 02:23:00)

at uni they just tell people to turn the sounds off for laptops and you look like a dickhead if youre really loud anyway. my handwriting is terrible, and i mean absolutely terrible i cant even read the shit myself half the time.

if youre on facebook and fucking off during your lectures then its really your loss... most people who show up to lectures dont do that since they could do shit at home or not show up to the lecture at all.

rewriting notes do help with revision a lot id have to agree with that.

if you reach university and you still don't have handwriting that's legible to even yourself then i think you have bigger issues than your choice of lecture-tool... how did examiners mark your work if your handwriting looks like an autistic child having a heart-attack plus stroke? sort it out. maybe get some writing lessons? over here i spent like an hour a day for my early primary education being forced to handwrite cursively and proportionally... a chore but now my handwriting is simply woooonderful and easy to read.

and yeah it's 'your loss' and 'your choice', &tc. but that doesn't mean it's not an annoyance for the lecturer. you can just do without laptops in lectures so i don't disagree with banning them-- same with mobile phones. you don't need to text your flatmate about last night's club antics in the hour you're in a lecture. it's annoying for the lecturer and for people around you; there was nothing more obnoxious for me in my 3 years of undergrad lectures than some prick with the latest iphone or ipad sat playing games and subtly showing off about his new toy. fuck that. be there to learn or fuck off... yeah, your choice... don't even go to the lecture then if all you're going to do is procrastinate. that was my method: didn't wanna be there? don't get out of bed in the first place. worked fine for my second-year where i pulled about 35% attendance.

oh and with 'noise on laptops' i was talking more about typing than anything else. macbooks have pretty plush and 'sponge' like keyboards and they still make a shitload of noise; i had a sony vaio in my first year and typing on that quietly was near-impossible. a pen makes zero noise. it's a no-brainer. not only are you taking in nowhere near as much information because typing is mindless, but you're distracting and affecting students around you with your constant clacking accompaniment to the lecturer's talking. no thanks, fuck off. as i said, i don't know how it is with compsci or math-science geek subjects, but in the arts there's just no excuse for having a laptop in a lecture.

i got a fractured finger on my right hand that makes my handwriting horrid when i write fast... yeah shit fucking sucks when i have to write for exams lol i just need to write REALLY REALLY goddamn slow. yeah i get marks off sometimes for neatness shit fucking sucks lol.

here in aussie its more practical to have a laptop since all of the lecture notes are online but you can print it and write them, to each and their own.

yeah i do find it annoying when people are texting or playing games on their phones... cell phone jammers work wonders to stop people from texting or calling. why bother showing up to the lecture in the first place just to fuck around.

the typing thing isnt that big of an issue since i would bet at least a good 50% of people dont show up to the lectures and we have huge lecture theatres and noise wasnt really much of an issue. but yeah usually when some twat is fucking around and distracting others they just get called out. loved it when my econ prof asked someone a question and the person couldnt respond to the topic he just explained. if people are in their own little world fucking off thats fine but when they start distracting others then that crosses the lines. the projectors at uni are pretty shit and sometimes they cram wayyy too much into a powerpoint slide and its just easier to read stuff from my laptop.

Uzique wrote:

we have online powerpoints and resources, too... but to me that's even less of a reason to take a laptop. you can hear the expert explain it to you, face-to-face, in the lecture theatre... surely the idea of web resources is that you can download them and revise from them anytime? i dunno... after 3 years of lecture-heavy teaching i have a long list of complaints about the format. i really love academic lectures in principle, but it's the other people you have to share it with that suck. undergrads are cunts.

lulz. i just have the lecture notes on my lappy and just type my own notes on the bottom of powerpoint in the comment section.

left-handedness is often associated with advanced systematizing ability or 'genius', though, owing to developments of testosterone changing the structure of the brain in the early stages of pre-gender foetalhood. so look on the bright-side, you now come across as being intelligent as well as 'mild' on the autistic spectrum.

that or gay. left-handed people are queer.

Last edited by Uzique (2011-06-21 02:57:33)

yeah but that was a case of my priorities being way fucked up... enjoying partying and wasting my life...

if you're going to make the effort to go to a lecture, at least pay attention and make it worth your time and effort...

well... i right-handed but left-... ehmm... footed (is that the way to say that?) i mean, i'm a lefty when playing football. now, what, i'm half-genius?

k, i'ma gugol dat.

Uzique wrote:

profs ban laptops because a) they're fucking noisy, b) it's not much fun lecturing to the back of a laptop, c) the internet/computers are a huge distraction, whereas a pen and paper aren't (doodles notwithstanding). i'd be pissed too if i'd trained for 8 years to reach a lectureship position and then had to spend my days talking to a bunch of 18 year old morons engrossed in farmville and checking their facebook picture comments.

and i type about 4x faster than i write... that doesn't mean anything. when i write notes, they're absorbed better. touch typing is a mechanical action - thoughtless, easy, detached - whereas writing and formulating sentences with a pen somehow involves a little more engagement and cognition. don't quote me on the science behind that but i think newbie is onto something with his mnemonics-of-writing. there's a reason why people for years and years have recommended copying/re-writing notes as a primary revision technique.

There's something about the way the brain processes reading and writing, compared with typing.
Re-writing notes was the only revision process which worked for me.