Your Study style hand write or type notes?

techN0

Hey I was wondering what you guys think would be the best some people say hand writing notes lets you retain more info. but typing is obviously much faster.

Pseudonym

I always type mine. You can copy diagrams and images from textbooks and websites. You can ctrl+f. You can delete. I also like to have two word docs open, cut and paste my finished notes into the other doc. This way I can map every exam objective in the first one in a clean, empty document, then you don't have to wade through loads of text to find the objective that maps to the study material. I have no idea why anyone would want to handwrite notes.

EANx

Are you more concerned with impressing the info in your head on the moment or are you concerned with later recall? More so you can't say "both". Handwriting tends to be better to impress the info while typing, being faster, is better for taking notes for later recall. That said, I've never been in a class where I couldn't write fast enough so for me, writing accomplishes both far better. I feel lazy when I type notes.

Info_Sec_Wannabe

I type mine as well, not because of preference, but due to my handwriting being so bad you could mistake it to be encrypted.

joshuamurphy75

After having several hand injuries, I rarely take notes while studying. My usual approach is to just read a different book or watch a different video on the topic until I finally understand it. Any notes I write are questions or things that interest me to lookup later. Not stuff I'm trying to learn. If I have something that must be memorized instead of just understood, I take a picture of it with my phone and glance at it through the day until it starts to stick.

At work, I take notes. I type, as it is much faster and less painful. I use a lot of shorthand.

tedjames

My handwriting sucks, which is an odd thing for someone with an architecture degree to say... I'd rather keep my notes in Word documents. As someone above mentioned, it's easier to arrange. Also, I tend to study by domain, and I use multiple sources. So I can **** everything I need into a file devoted to that domain and then ensure that I'm covering every bullet point in the exam objectives.

scaredoftests

handwriting..it seems like I get more out of it that way.

gespenstern

I do neither.

NetworkNewb

scaredoftests wrote: »

handwriting..it seems like I get more out of it that way.

+1, I feel like writing it out by hand definitely helps things stick in my head more. Have tried typing it out and just not a fan, even though like others mention it is easier to organize them typed.

Chrisbari14

Seems like I retain more information when Writing rather than typing. I studied for my Security+ and typed my notes and failed by like 150 points. Once i reread the book and wrote my notes, I passed easily.

TechGromit

Info_Sec_Wannabe wrote: »

I type mine as well, not because of preference, but due to my handwriting being so bad you could mistake it to be encrypted.

I do the same, so long as I re-read the notes I created, It doesn't really matter if I hand wrote or typed them up, I will remember them all the same.

cochi78

It is a matter of learning style.

I prefer writing out my notes by hand, but my handwriting is quite ok anyway I guess. Also, I use text markers to stress the points of biggest "news" or importance to me. But I also want this to be archived digitally and not have sheets of paper flying around.

So I switched to using a Rocketbook some months ago. Together with the well-known Frixion pens, you get a notebook in which you can erase parts of your notes with the Frixion eraser or clean the entire page with some water and a microfiber cloth. The Rocketbook also has a QR code and some "icons" to tick in the lower area, so I can use their app to capture the notes and directly put them into Evernote (or send them via mail - you can configure that). The app also enhances contrast, deskews and all so the result is great. I prefer the Executive paper format, as Letter is too big for my style.

You can do similar things with the Elfinbook (competitor aka "rip off"), they have lined pages which are a bit better for me. Disadvantage: no QR code, so the Rocketbook app does not work. The Elfinbook app is crap so far and does not integrate well. I "hacked" my Elfinbook by printing Rocketbook compatible QR codes onto transparent film, cut them out and put them in the Elfinbook bottom corners on each page. So the app works. Not perfect, but I already told Rocketbook about that and hope for them to introduce some lined version.

Just my style of learning, I am aware that it sounds a bit like a marketing pitch. But it proved well enough so some colleagues adapted that learning style and I thought it might be valuable to share.

thedudeabides

gespenstern wrote: »

I do neither.

Same. I don't find taking notes helps me much unless I'm receiving transient information that I have no way to access in the future. That's almost never the case. I watch the videos, read the books, etc as many times as it takes until it's all in my head.

That said, I'm a big fan of yellow highlighters.

cyberguypr

Both written and digital notes have proved useful for me. I'm complety moved to digital mainly becuase of what Pseudonym mentioned: CTRL+F. Being able to quickly search for a specific term has been a game changer for me and that's is why I don't do paper anymore. The only exception is SANS books because I have to go over them again when indexing and need to written comment paired to the specific section.

yoba222

Another vote for neither.

I feel that note taking is a way of tricking yourself into thinking about the material while you take those notes--at least until you get too efficient at writing them to be tricked.

I do keep numerous ****-sheets for syntax-heavy processes, but this has nothing to do with studying IMHO.

malachi1612

Hand-write

But I went abit extreme during the week and purchased a iPad with a Apple Pencil for taken notes. I find it so much easier than carrying paper around, I can easily take screenshots of my labs and drop them into my notes aswell as hyperlinks to technet articles.

Wish I did this when I started my certs 2 years ago.

MalwareMike

My studying habits goes like this:

Quick review of the material (skimming through it but not taking notes) > Read the material throughly and highlight key topics > During the 3rd run I will take notes and I use OneNote.

victor.s.andrei

Pseudonym wrote: »

I always type mine. You can copy diagrams and images from textbooks and websites. You can ctrl+f. You can delete. I also like to have two word docs open, cut and paste my finished notes into the other doc. This way I can map every exam objective in the first one in a clean, empty document, then you don't have to wade through loads of text to find the objective that maps to the study material. I have no idea why anyone would want to handwrite notes.

There is something to actually physically writing the notes rather than just typing the notes on a keyboard. Ditto for reading a physical paper book.

techN0 wrote: »

Hey I was wondering what you guys think would be the best some people say hand writing notes lets you retain more info. but typing is obviously much faster.

Chuck Norris doesn't need notes or books. When Chuck Norris enters the exam room, the certification exams pass themselves with scores so high that even the test writers are amazed.

TechGuru80

I think overall the benefits of typing outweigh the cons even though I do feel I retained information faster when writing it down. Although there are some other points to be made about both ways, I think the below two are the biggest reasons why I type notes.

1. If you use a cloud source (Evernote, Dropbox, iCloud, etc.), you can easily pull up your notes wherever you are at instead of having to take a notebook.
2. Sometimes you find little pieces of information that fit better with another subject. With handwritten notes this can cause a mess.

tedjames

Anybody familiar with The Cone of Learning?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_SYVNoXDQk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-eSxgRetvk

E Double U

I did handwritten notes for C|EH, CISSP, and Cisco certs. For GIAC, I obviously typed my indexes. No notes for my ISACA certs.

Pseudonym

victor.s.andrei wrote: »

There is something to actually physically writing the notes rather than just typing the notes on a keyboard. Ditto for reading a physical paper book.



Chuck Norris doesn't need notes or books. When Chuck Norris enters the exam room, the certification exams pass themselves with scores so high that even the test writers are amazed.

I use PDFs.

NiTech-5

This has definitely been an area of experimentation for me. But, I've concluded that it can be quite time-consuming (mostly for 600+ page books). It doesn't help that I have robotic and crappy handwriting as well.

I now just type out my own basic reference guide/**** sheet for everything that I read. My reference guide will just list the term/concepts with specific page numbers that I can refer to whenever I want to review. I do it for every chapter that I read. So, we'll see how it goes.

nisti2

I do it on the old ways, hand write always.
But also I highlight on PDF.

tedjames

NiTech-5 wrote: »

I now just type out my own basic reference guide/**** sheet for everything that I read. My reference guide will just list the term/concepts with specific page numbers that I can refer to whenever I want to review. I do it for every chapter that I read. So, we'll see how it goes.

That's more or less what I do, though I do make sure that what I write down corresponds with the exam objectives.