I have always love taking notes. In a sense, it’s for the same reason why I like to write. It anchors me when everything else is free and floating. More concretely:
In lecture, my natural tendency is to disengage and become glassy-eyed as soon as I get lost; note-taking reminds me to continue to listen and to just write down what I see and hear, even when (especially when!) nothing is making sense.
On days when I’m running on too-little sleep, the friction and rhythm of pencil on paper helps me keep my eyes open.
Note-taking helps me detangle concepts: I’ve long believed that if I can make something clear on paper, then it can become clear in my mind.
It calms me down. When I feel hopelessly behind in a class, note-taking is a clear, immediately actionable step I can take to regain footing.
Outside of working through practice problems and exams, note-taking (not note-reviewing) is the primary way I study for exams. In fact, beyond occasionally looking back to see how I’ve solved a problem in the past, I rarely look back on my notes. Almost all of my exam studying consists of writing new notes from scratch. I often end up taking notes on the same content three different times at varying levels of detail: once in real-time, during lecture, where I write down whatever I can catch; once more after lecture, slower and more exact as I takes notes off a lecture recording or associated reading; and a final time as I distill the big ideas to get ready for an exam.
Here is what my notes look like, in all their many forms:
(from 9.40 -- Introduction to Neural Computation) this class was so incredibly interesting -- it was my first time seeing differential equations, probability theory, and circuit theory being applied to neuroscience.
(from 9.40 -- Introduction to Neural Computation)
(from 6.310 -- Dynamical System Modeling and Control Design) I consider this one of the classes that has changed my academic trajectory. I came into 6.310 never having heard of control theory, and left thinking it was some of the most interesting math I’ve ever come across.
(notes from my current UROP) I’m working in a lab that’s at the intersection of control theory and synthetic biology!
(notes from my old UROP, a biomedical engineering lab) I remember spending two hours huddled at the kitchen table when I was home during freshman year's Thanksgiving Break to draw out this heart. time well-spent - I love drawing diagrams <3
(notes from my old UROP)
(from 6.370 -- Introduction to Probability). These are notes taken from the accompanying Introduction to Probability (Bertsekas and Tsitsiklis) textbook. I think this was the closest I’ve ever gotten to reading a textbook cover-to-cover — 10/10 textbook experience.
(from 18.650 -- Introduction to Statistics) I love using colors while taking notes because “it entertains me.”
(from 18.650 -- Introduction to Statistics) I would like to emphasize that my notes are not color-coded. The different colors mean nothing, and they do not serve any purpose other than bringing me joy.
often, I use colors as a way to keep myself engaged, switching colors as soon as I feel myself getting unfocused and bored.
(from 6.370 -- Introduction to Probability)
(from 6.370 -- Introduction to Probability)
(from 6.370 -- Introduction to Probability)
(from 2.151 -- Advanced System Dynamics and Control) this is one of my current classes! recently, I've really been liking this pseudo-Olive Garden color palette for my notes
(from 9.36 -- Neurobiology of Self) I could talk about this class forever and ever and ever. I consider it another trajectory-altering class that really helped me define what parts of neuroscience I'm truly interested in.
(from 9.36 -- Neurobiology of Self) what you're seeing here are my pset annotations from when I'd have three-hour-long discussions with the awesome 9.36 TAs about class content. shoutout julia and florence!
(from 6.300 -- Signal Processing) another great class with an above-and-beyond recitation instructor (though sometimes, I get distracted...)
this semester, I've been trying to be more present during lecture by taking notes on paper. I have one muji notebook shared across two classes.
in-class notes from 21M.301 (Harmony and Counterpoint 1)
more notes from 21M.301...
for the second class I'm taking notes for in the same notebook, I start from the back, flipping then turning the notebook upside down so that it still hinges on its left edge. last week, my notes from each class finally met in the middle, and I knew it was time for a new notebook.
in-class notes from 2.151 (controls)!
more in-class notes from 2.151. note the sporadic cursive: a sure sign that I am either zoned out or on the verge of entering flow state. there is no in-between.
and even more in-class notes from 2.151
and if we do a quick zoom-in: "what is going on"
(notes for 6.200 -- Circuits) I don't have a notebook for this class! instead, I've been doing a lot of note-taking and problem-solving for circuits on stray sheets of printer paper using two Sharpies and a set of four highlighters. I've found "working-out-in-Sharpie" a great way to approach problems I'm stuck on.
(from 6.200) will I one day regret spreading my circuit notes across fifty separate sheets of paper that I'll invariably lose at some point? maybe. but for now, it does the job and makes me smile.
