Stop typing your notes. It kills your memory and you'll never use them. (And this is why)

I did a little survey on my second year engineering students this week, and it revealed that recurrent complaints about my students' lack of knowledge. When I ask them questions in class about concepts presented in previous years that are recurrent throughout the study program, they don't seem to have the faintest idea what I'm talking about. I've asked them to prepare for class, and they tell me that they have no idea where to start looking in their notes. <br><br>I ask then how they take their notes. Everyone, and I mean everyone, types them. Everyone has a laptop and types their notes religiously, with the occasional diagram thrown in. <br><br>I asked them if they use their notes to study. Most of them (definitely not all) say they never look at their notes, but will listen to the lectures online. Which is why I generally record my lectures. <br><br>But most of all, I asked them if they review the notes they type. Very few ever review their notes. In fact, most people never review any of their notes. <br><br>I used to do this. We all used to do this. Now, I take my notes on paper and only in bullet points. <br><br>Types note taking kills your memory<br><br>When you type your notes, you are not actually paying attention to the class. You are spending all of this energy typing everything your teacher says into your computer, and you're not actually processing the information. <br><br>I started using this technique of note taking in university, when I realized that during the 3 hour exam prep sessions in which everyone frantically copied the lecture notes of some students on the chalkboard, I was basically wasting my time. I wasn't paying attention to anyone, and I wasn't studying. We were all copying. <br><br>When I wrote my notes in class, I didn't pay attention to the class at all. I was just writing. I wasn't processing any of the information being presented. <br><br>Note taking on paper allows you to process that information and keep what is important. It keeps you focused on what the teacher is saying, and helps you to develop a way to structure your notes in a way that is relevant to the class and the material. <br><br>Unfortunately, this makes studying much more difficult as well, especially when your classmates have their entire notes typed out and they can make a detailed outline of everything covered in class. <br><br>But don't worry, they won't remember any of it.