Note-taking is an essential process to summarise the information from your lessons and lectures. The better your notes are, the higher your grades will be. It is therefore important to perfect your note-taking methods to make effective use of your revision time and maximise your test scores. However, with increased usage of technology in education, there is a key long-standing question as to whether you stick with the traditional pen and paper approach or swap to a laptop or tablet. This article discusses the scientific evidence of using a pen and paper versus using a laptop to take notes to succeed in your exams.
1. Laptop note-taking is faster, but results in shallower knowledge
It is no surprise that taking notes on a laptop is much faster than writing notes by hand (Brown, 1988). You might think that this is advantageous to your learning, but here lies a big problem. By writing everything that your teacher or lecturer says verbatim (ie word-for-word), you do not process the information in depth. Most people can type up the notes, but that doesn’t mean you understand the topic properly. Therefore it might be worth sacrificing your speed of writing notes in order to have a better understanding of the topic.
2. Laptop note-taking is better for immediate recall
In addition to the speed, one study has shown that laptop note-taking is better for immediate recall (Bui et al., 2013). In this experiment, students were asked to transcribe notes using a laptop or a pen and paper. They were not given any further time to study their notes, but took a test immediately afterwards. These tests showed that students using laptops outperformed students using pen and paper in factual recall.
Although this is an interesting result, in reality schools and universities do not test students immediately after a class, but instead on a termly or yearly basis. Therefore, the improvement in immediate recall gained from using a laptop might not be as essential to your studies.
3. Pen and paper note-taking increases test scores
A recent study in Princeton has shown that students scored higher in tests when using pen and paper to take their notes versus using a laptop (Mueller and Oppenheimer, 2014). By using pen and paper, we tend to paraphrase and separate our notes into concepts, resulting in better conceptual learning. This type of learning prepares us for how we will be examined at school and university.
Furthermore, writing notes is a slower process but this in turn teaches us to select only the essential information to write down. With time this develops into a stronger skill allowing us to filter through irrelevant study material, improving our learning and memory retention during classes.
4. Pen and paper note-taking increases response time and neuronal activity
The benefits of pen and paper have been demonstrated even further by imaging the brain activity. In this recent study, 48 volunteers were asked to write notes using pen and paper, or a tablet or laptop and to answer test questions (Umejima et al., 2021). Students who used pen and paper answered questions in less time. While answering the questions, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) recorded and increased neuronal activity in certain regions of the brain. Brain activity was highest in participants using pen and paper, suggesting higher processing of information via this method.
In summary, there are different methods for note-taking and it is up to you to find the approach that works best for you. One key takeaway is to avoid mindless copying of notes, and instead process and reframe the information into concepts.
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