Do you make notes? Use a Notepad Program?
Chris.Mackenzie01
Member Posts: 36 ■■■□□□□□□□
I've passed a few exams in the past and I've never really been one for making notes, my CCNA course I jotted bits down but nothing extensive. I've always gone back to the book if i felt like i didn't understand something.
Now I'm doing my CCNP, and trying to be much better in my note taking as I feel like theres alot more info to cram in, so was curious what you guys use? Do you hand write notes? or use a notepad app on your machine?
Now I'm doing my CCNP, and trying to be much better in my note taking as I feel like theres alot more info to cram in, so was curious what you guys use? Do you hand write notes? or use a notepad app on your machine?
Comments
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cochi78 Member Posts: 72 ■■■□□□□□□□I do, but I prefer the oldschool, handwritten ones as (I feel) that builds up more via muscle and visual memory.
As I am a digital guy, I use a Rocketbook for notetaking which can be erased via water with Frixion pens and has a nice smartphone app. That one us used to take a picture of the page, removes distortions, enhances contrast and can recognize if you want it uploaded immediately to Evernote via some nifty icons.
Matter of taste but a good hybrid of manual writing + digital storage. Not searchable though (yet) -
EANx Member Posts: 1,077 ■■■■■■■■□□Hand written here as well. I prefer an 8-1/2 x 11 legal pad but will take what I can get in a pinch. I especially like it for memorization, handwriting page after page works wonders, at least for me.
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DZA_ Member Posts: 467 ■■■■■■■□□□I recently started getting back into the habit of writing notes for my CCSP exam, the last time I did that was back in college. I hop between notepad, notepad++ and previously sublime text editor when I use a digital notepad. I personally find writing notes manually with a good notebook and a fountain pen works wonders.
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november24 Member Posts: 76 ■■■■□□□□□□I am preparing for the 1st MCSA Exam, I am following a note-taking technique that I read somewhere on the web which is, I copy the exam objectives to MS OneNote and when I start studying when I go over each subject I put my notes under the corresponding subject, most of the notes are copied from the web.
* I hope I've cleared my idea since English is not my primary language. -
trojin Member Posts: 275 ■■■■□□□□□□Notepad++
I'm very close to forgot how use a pen...I'm just doing my job, nothing personal, sorry
xx+ certs...and I'm not counting anymore -
malachi1612 Member Posts: 430 ■■■■□□□□□□Was pen and paper until a few months ago when I noticed it wasn't practical carry paper in my bag around with me. So I purchased an iPad, Apple Pencil and Notability. Alot more better, copy and paste from websites, write notes and read them on any device.Certifications:MCSE: Cloud Platform and Infrastructure, MCSA: Windows Server 2016, ITIL Foundation, MCSA: Windows 10, MCP, Azure Fundamentals, Security+.
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Jon_Cisco Member Posts: 1,772 ■■■■■■■■□□I use legal pads to take notes and draw diagrams all the time. I almost never refer to them after the day or two that I am studying that topic. For me the real value is in visualizing the concepts and writing them out the way I interpret them.
I have considered pickup up a few bound journals to try keeping some more permanent references that I can quickly skim for exam prep. -
DZA_ Member Posts: 467 ■■■■■■■□□□november24 wrote: »I am preparing for the 1st MCSA Exam, I am following a note-taking technique that I read somewhere on the web which is, I copy the exam objectives to MS OneNote and when I start studying when I go over each subject I put my notes under the corresponding subject, most of the notes are copied from the web.
* I hope I've cleared my idea since English is not my primary language.
As a side note (no pun intended), I would study entire common body of knowledge rather than just what is under objectives. You wouldn't want to be caught off guard if something wasn't under the objectives per se or required other information that would assist you tackling an issue under an objective. Regardless, OneNote is a great note taking application to keep things organized. Both current employer and past employer encourage to use OneNote for meetings. -
jcundiff Member Posts: 486 ■■■■□□□□□□I hand write, and then type up in word. This serves a couple of purposes... 1). My hand writing would make a doctor proud :P so if I don't type my notes in within a day or two, I often have trouble deciphering what I wrote. 2). Mental reinforcement, hand writing and then typing I am seeing and reading everything twice before I ever start studying my notes"Hard Work Beats Talent When Talent Doesn't Work Hard" - Tim Notke
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snokerpoker Member Posts: 661 ■■■■□□□□□□I used to write stuff by hand in a notebook but then I had a collection of them I didn't want to get rid of. I used Onenote for notes. I also use Sublime text and Atom txt editors for config notes, etc.
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NetworkingStudent Member Posts: 1,407 ■■■■■■■■□□I hand write, and then type up in word. This serves a couple of purposes... 1). My hand writing would make a doctor proud :P so if I don't type my notes in within a day or two, I often have trouble deciphering what I wrote. 2). Mental reinforcement, hand writing and then typing I am seeing and reading everything twice before I ever start studying my notes
I do similar process as well.
I hand write my note from books and place them into One note. Any videos I take notes from go directly into One Note.
Any processes/procedures I follow at work, I put into One Note.When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened."
--Alexander Graham Bell,
American inventor -
NetworkingStudent Member Posts: 1,407 ■■■■■■■■□□Chris.Mackenzie01 wrote: »I've passed a few exams in the past and I've never really been one for making notes, my CCNA course I jotted bits down but nothing extensive. I've always gone back to the book if i felt like i didn't understand something.
Now I'm doing my CCNP, and trying to be much better in my note taking as I feel like theres alot more info to cram in, so was curious what you guys use? Do you hand write notes? or use a notepad app on your machine?
I found this video helpful
https://youtu.be/44sOZk69pIY
From the website:
Using Microsoft OneNote For CCNA Certification Success
In this video we walk through how I use Microsoft OneNote to prepare for certification exams. This can be applied to the CCENT, CCNA, CCNP, MCSA and any other certification exam. Every situation will be different. My goal was to give you my first hand experience. I hope you enjoy this video and please remember to subscribe, like and comment.When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened."
--Alexander Graham Bell,
American inventor -
futurehendrix Member Posts: 28 ■□□□□□□□□□I typically use OneNote and keep it organized by day, topic, subtopics, etc..
It makes it easy to review. -
mzx380 Member Posts: 453 ■■■■□□□□□□I hand write, and then type up in word. This serves a couple of purposes... 1). My hand writing would make a doctor proud :P so if I don't type my notes in within a day or two, I often have trouble deciphering what I wrote. 2). Mental reinforcement, hand writing and then typing I am seeing and reading everything twice before I ever start studying my notes
I used to take the same route as Jcundiff but now I end up just typing directly since I simply don't have the time because of work/life concerns. To make up for it, I just double down on the time I'd spend reviewing the notes I make in Microsoft Word.Certifications: ITIL, ACA, CCNA, Linux+, VCP-DCV, PMP, PMI-ACP, CSM
Currently Working On: Microsoft 70-761 (SQL Server) -
xagreus Member Posts: 120 ■■■■□□□□□□Great comments in this thread – thanks for sharing, folks!
I, too, use OneNote for IT study, not to mention non-IT study, meeting notes, personal journal, etc. I used Evernote for years, but when they started charging to use their app on more than two devices (I tend to switch between 4 or more, depending on circumstances - work computer, home computer, tablet for studying while on the bus, etc.) back in 2016, I imported my notes to OneNote. It wasn't a flawless process, and there are a few features I liked better with Evernote, but since then, I've become a huge fan of OneNote and how it's organized.
Truth be told, I prefer taking notes by hand for the muscle memory (as mentioned by cochi78 ), but I'm trying to de-paperize my life as much as I reasonably can, so I've been mostly taking digital notes. They're a lot harder for me to misplace this way, too.
As some have mentioned, I find the idea of handwriting notes and then typing them up attractive, aside from the time commitment - best of both worlds!Current: A+, Net+, Sec+, Cloud+, CySA+, CCNA, ITIL 2011 Foundation, AWS CCP, ISC2 CC, MS SC-900, MS AZ-900
2024 goals: AZ-900, Cloud+, Palo Alto PCNSA, CyberOps Associate, DevNet Associate, Project+
2025 goals: Linux+, Palo Alto PCNSA, TryHackMe SOC Level 1, TryHackMe SOC Level 2, TryHackMe Security Engineer, CASP+/SecurityX -
Jasiono Member Posts: 896 ■■■■□□□□□□I usually jot things down quickly and with ugly handwriting and go over it again, creating perfectly (almost calligraphy to a point) written and organized notes which I read over and over again.
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Jasiono Member Posts: 896 ■■■■□□□□□□I do, but I prefer the oldschool, handwritten ones as (I feel) that builds up more via muscle and visual memory.
As I am a digital guy, I use a Rocketbook for notetaking which can be erased via water with Frixion pens and has a nice smartphone app. That one us used to take a picture of the page, removes distortions, enhances contrast and can recognize if you want it uploaded immediately to Evernote via some nifty icons.
Matter of taste but a good hybrid of manual writing + digital storage. Not searchable though (yet)
How is it holding up? I see you can throw them into the microwave to erase everything but I'm wondering how many times you can do that before it falls apart. -
willieb Member Posts: 108 ■■■□□□□□□□Never pen or pencil and paper. I use Word and either copy/paste, type it out, and snip images. I take separate notes for each resource and only take notes on items I don't already know well.
A few days before the exam I'll go over the notes and highlight items I have learned well and don't need to review anymore.
Then I review my notes one final time before the exam going over only items I'm the weakest on.
I prefer digital notes because I save them on my google drive and can pull them up on any PC/device, and I can easily edit them, and print a hard copy.[X] CCENT ICND1 100-105
[X] CCNA ICND2 200-105
[X] CCNP ROUTE 300-101
[X] CCNP SWITCH 300-115
[X] CCNP TSHOOT 300-135
[ ] CCDP ARCH 300-320 -
nycguy1128 Registered Users Posts: 3 ■□□□□□□□□□I've always preferred using pen and paper for muscle memory. I've been using OneNote with my Surface Pro and pen lately. It definitely working out better than typing the notes out but I do miss the pen to paper feel of writing.