Do you make notes? Use a Notepad Program?

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?

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cochi78

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

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.

DZA_

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.

november24

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

Notepad++
I'm very close to forgot how use a pen...

malachi1612

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.

Jon_Cisco

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_

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

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

snokerpoker

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.

NetworkingStudent

jcundiff wrote: »

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.

NetworkingStudent

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.

futurehendrix

I typically use OneNote and keep it organized by day, topic, subtopics, etc..

It makes it easy to review.

mzx380

jcundiff wrote: »

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.

xagreus

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!

Jasiono

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.

Jasiono

cochi78 wrote: »

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)

Tell me more!
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

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.

paul78

I use Emacs org mode. Seems to work for me for my style of note taking.

Rocketbook looks really cool. I see that they have OCR in beta.
@cochi78 - I would enjoy hearing more about your experience with Rocketbook as well.

nycguy1128

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.