FUTUREPA2017 Posted January 4, 2015 Share Posted January 4, 2015 I'm starting class on the 12th of this month and wondered what the best way to take and keep notes organized would be. One subject notebook for each class? A five subject for all classes? A binder for each class? Take notes on the laptop? I'd appreciate opinions from anyone who has found a good system that worked for them! Thanks in advance! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marktheshark89 Posted January 4, 2015 Share Posted January 4, 2015 Notability Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PA2016! Posted January 4, 2015 Share Posted January 4, 2015 Depends if you like to study on the computer or if you like hard notes. I prefer something tangible in my hands therefore I use 1 binder for everything, that way I always have every class on me (I never know what I will be in the mood to study for..). This only works for about 2 weeks of material though because the 5inch binder fills up, and notes have to be rotated out..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator rev ronin Posted January 4, 2015 Administrator Share Posted January 4, 2015 I took notes in the form of short-answer questions. I'd then go through and erase the answers, and have a self-test, which I shared with my classmates. I heard from a faculty member recently that 5 years on, didactic students are still passing down my quizzes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FUTUREPA2017 Posted January 4, 2015 Author Share Posted January 4, 2015 Thank you guys for replying! I'm much quicker at taking notes on a laptop but when I study I like to have them in my hands where I can mark them up to my liking. You guys have given me some great options to think about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gbrothers98 Posted January 4, 2015 Share Posted January 4, 2015 I took notes in the form of short-answer questions. I'd then go through and erase the answers, and have a self-test, which I shared with my classmates. I heard from a faculty member recently that 5 years on, didactic students are still passing down my quizzes. This is an example of two strategies proven successful in cognitive psychology studies. Self generation always does better than using other's notes or rereading. Make the material your own. Retrieval practice on material (quizzing) uncovers knowledge deficits that a learner does not know they dont know, the unknown unknown. Can use self generation and retrieval practice to REFLECT on the material. Using reflection, can associate material with what is already known and place it into context in one's knowledge base. But the OP asked about organization of notes. Common to want to organize everything into it's own tidy area. Works great in a household or a shop. Placing notes in separate notebooks keeps that knowledge in distinct areas. Unfortunately when you need to retrieve that knowledge for real time application, likely the context you used to store is dissimilar to the situation it has to be applied. For example, you have a great grasp of cardiac physiology and renal physiology separately during each respective block. But cardiorenal physiology is what you need to understand when treating the patient with heart failure manifested by severe dyspnea several months later during your clinical rotation. So there needs to be a process to take your separate notebooks and interleave that knowledge, combining anatomy, physiology, pharmacology, medical science and behavioral science together to actually perform what you are trained to do, which is practice clinical medicine. Eventually all those notebooks need to become one large notebook. When you sit for a summative exam such as the PackRat and then the PANCE or have to be pass an OSCE (objective structured clinical examination), the knowledge base needed to be successful isn't stored in separate notebooks but has climbed up the learning pyramid from knowledge and comprehension to application, synthesis and evaluation. So keep the separate notebooks or whatever you decide to do. But realize that you need that summative knowledge base that you will have to fit together like an ongoing puzzle throughout your PA education. Then get prepared for the shock that when you graduate and begin practice, the puzzle you have solved is really only part of an even larger puzzle......that you will continue to work on for the rest of your professional life. Good luck. G Brothers PA-C Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbscoops20 Posted January 4, 2015 Share Posted January 4, 2015 Notability Agree with this. I started out my first semester printing out ppt slides and hand writing notes. I gave up on this about 2 weeks in and changed over to notability. Much better way to organize notes IMHO and you can still highlight and type your own notes in. A huge benefit is recording the lecture and being able to re-listen to it. You can jump to any point in the lecture where you took a note or highlighted to review it if you missed it during your initial note taking in class. This helped me immensely in Pharmacology. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FUTUREPA2017 Posted January 4, 2015 Author Share Posted January 4, 2015 Agree with this. I started out my first semester printing out ppt slides and hand writing notes. I gave up on this about 2 weeks in and changed over to notability. Much better way to organize notes IMHO and you can still highlight and type your own notes in. A huge benefit is recording the lecture and being able to re-listen to it. You can jump to any point in the lecture where you took a note or highlighted to review it if you missed it during your initial note taking in class. This helped me immensely in Pharmacology. I've been looking into Notability and keep coming across Evernote. What made you go with Notability? I'm new to the whole using an app to take notes so I don't really know what to look for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arthropathy Posted January 4, 2015 Share Posted January 4, 2015 I graduated undegrad in 2005 when laptops were no where to be found in any classroom. When I started PA school two years ago I started with paper notes but quickly found a laptop to be much more efficient, not only note taking but cross-referencing during lecture. I experimented with different strategies but settled on Microsoft OneNote even though I detest Microsoft. The benefits were easy freeform formatting of note pages, easy to insert images and slides from ppt or the internet. You can organize into notebooks, groups, sections and pages. Even then your other notebooks are just a click away. For a couple classes I found that adding notes straight to the ppt slides was better for that lecturer's style so I did that too when it felt right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PA2016! Posted January 4, 2015 Share Posted January 4, 2015 Also, if you use a mac....Keynote (like powerpoint) allows you to type into the box below the slides and print the presentation 3 slides to a page with your typed notes next to the slide.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FUTUREPA2017 Posted January 4, 2015 Author Share Posted January 4, 2015 Also, if you use a mac....Keynote (like powerpoint) allows you to type into the box below the slides and print the presentation 3 slides to a page with your typed notes next to the slide.... I have a macbook air. I played around with keynote and figured out how to type below a slide but I like how easy it is to organize things in Evernote. I haven't played around with Notability since it's not free but I did see where it's 50% off right now so I may go ahead and buy it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FUTUREPA2017 Posted January 4, 2015 Author Share Posted January 4, 2015 Also, with the free version of Evernote you have an upload limit of 60mb a month. Will that be sufficient for PA school or would I have to upgrade and pay more for a higher limit? Because if that is the case then Notability would probably be the better (cheaper) route if my understanding is right that purchasing the Notablilty app is the only fee. Sorry for not knowing how far 60 MB will go. I'm not the most tech savvy person out there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbscoops20 Posted January 4, 2015 Share Posted January 4, 2015 I've been looking into Notability and keep coming across Evernote. What made you go with Notability? I'm new to the whole using an app to take notes so I don't really know what to look for. I used notability simply because a few people in my class used it and recommended it. Haven't tried evernote so can't give you a comparison there. 60 MB should be sufficient. I have the majority of my first semester notes in notability and it only comes out to about 6 MB of data. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whoRyou Posted January 4, 2015 Share Posted January 4, 2015 OneNote – This is the program that I use for notes during class. Using OneNote, you can import entire power point presentations (even the notes at the bottom of each slide) into a single document and add your notes and drawings as well. OneNote allows you to organize all the lecture materials and slides in one place. Word documents, powerpoints, PDFs, images, and Excel sheets can be placed in tabs in your “notebook”. From here, you can easily navigate, add your own notes and text, highlight, or draw on the slides. I usually use the draw functions to add arrows to radiographic images or to circle important points on slides. I usually organize my notes by subject but other students organize by date, with tabs for each block, each week within the block, and day of the week, and individual note pages for each lecture that day or by block or by course (i.e one for embryology, one for anatomy, etc) The most convenient thing about OneNote is that all of your notes are synced to a Microsoft SkyDrive (their version of the iCloud) so that you can access your notes on the iPad and phone. If I’m studying and ever need to consult my notes from class, I can just take out my iPad or if I’m on the go, my phone and reference the lectures or notes in a really organized fashion. Having OneNote on my iPad let’s me review notes when I am on the bus or in other situations where it’s hard to get your computer out. This is one feature that Mac users with Growly Notes (basically the OneNote equivalent) do not have since there is no Growly Notes app for the iPad. One of the most useful tools in OneNote is the find function. You can type in a keyword and OneNote will search your entire notebook and show you every instance when that word is used. This is very helpful because a huge number of documents can be scanned at once. Since many concepts in our classes overlap, it helps to make connections between subjects. For instance, if something is mentioned in embryology and you feel like you have heard that word before, but you don’t know where, you can search it and find the lectures in which it was previously mentioned. One of the most useful tools in OneNote is the find function. You can type in a keyword and OneNote will search your entire notebook and show you every instance when that word is used. This is very helpful because a huge number of documents can be scanned at once. Since many concepts in our classes overlap, it helps to make connections between subjects. For instance, if something is mentioned in embryology and you feel like you have heard that word before, but you don’t know where, you can search it and find the lectures in which it was previously mentioned. EverNote – I found that format is not really conducive to good organization of notes. I do really like the mobile layout of the app and I use EverNote extensively for “every day” note taking. Grocery lists, work out programs, random ideas, to do lists, jotting down an email or name I want to remember. One thing I really like about EverNote is that when you make a note, it generates a time and location stamp for the notes. Growly Notes – This is probably the most popular note taking program for our class because it is made for Apple computers. I personally don’t have any experience with it as a PC user, but it has a great organization format as far as I can tell. DropBox - Online file storage and sharing service that is very useful for sharing study materials between students. Our anatomy buddies group uses this extensively to share quizzes and study guides. It is a really great service, and DropBox will load thing directly to and from your personal DropBox, which is very convenient . One thing to remember is that it’s not HIPPA compliant, so if there is any patient information, it shouldn’t be put in DropBox Google Drive – Not to be overlooked is the tried and true Google Documents. Whether it be study guides or notes, it’s hard to beat the convenience of Google Drive if your goal is mass editing and sharing. Sharing the link to your document is easy, and it can be set up so that anyone who views the document can also edit it. Just like DropBox, this isn’t HIPPA compliant, so don’t share patient information. TurboScan – This is an app that takes pictures of documents and turns them into PDF files that you can email to people (or yourself) or upload to DropBox. I do this for all class handouts to have an immediate digital copy of any paper items we get in class or study groups. I can email files to myself and post them into my OneNote documents. I also use this app for personal finances. I take a picture of my receipts from grocery shopping and going out as well as my bills so that I can better budget myself and keep track of purchases. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whitcc1 Posted January 4, 2015 Share Posted January 4, 2015 +1 for notability! Love the notepad experience on my iPad plus it records the lecture based on the where you are in your notes! Additionally it backs up PDFs to your Dropbox so you can view them anywhere Just make sure you buy a good stylus! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fakingpatience Posted January 5, 2015 Share Posted January 5, 2015 Do you guys think having a computer with touch screen capability, to add drawings to the notes (specifically thinking of the surface pro) would be beneficial? Debating what to get for my new computer; I'm a long time mac user right now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arthropathy Posted January 5, 2015 Share Posted January 5, 2015 Do you guys think having a computer with touch screen capability, to add drawings to the notes (specifically thinking of the surface pro) would be beneficial? Naw. One or two in my class did but not me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator rev ronin Posted January 5, 2015 Administrator Share Posted January 5, 2015 Do you guys think having a computer with touch screen capability, to add drawings to the notes (specifically thinking of the surface pro) would be beneficial? Debating what to get for my new computer; I'm a long time mac user right now. Why on earth would you, a "long time mac user" want to switch to Windows? Trust me, the last thing ANYONE needs in PA school is to dink around with an unfamiliar and buggy computer system. The Apple premium in pricing is well worth it in the "don't have to mess around with it" aspect with which Windows, in any form, has never quite caught up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gbrothers98 Posted January 5, 2015 Share Posted January 5, 2015 Do you guys think having a computer with touch screen capability, to add drawings to the notes (specifically thinking of the surface pro) would be beneficial? Debating what to get for my new computer; I'm a long time mac user right now. Yeah, it's called an iPad. Can use your finger or stylus in notability to do this. Also a piece of functionality that seems to be getting short thrift is Apple's speech to text function. Have to be on WiFi, but when aren't you? Pair the iPad with wireless keyboard and you have a surface. With more apps, especially in medicine. Put Citrix on it and you actually may be able to use the EMR when on rotation. Since you will be starting school, likely can get an educational discount direct from Apple. Plus you can finance the thing for 0 interest over 18 months. My iPad Air 2, 128GB is on its way here. GB PA-C Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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