ATAR Notes: Forum
Uni Stuff => General University Discussion and Queries => Topic started by: acrimony on December 27, 2011, 11:00:37 pm
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Do many students use a laptop/ipad to take notes in a lecture theatre? Or is it the old fashioned notebook and pen?
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For maths subjects, it's mostly pen and paper. I've seen one or two people with a tablet and a stylus... But it's mostly the "old fashioned way."
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I never used one but I decided to buy a laptop for med lectures next year. Didn't want to print out all the lecture notes either.. Also I find that in biological science lectures, there are usually a few that take notes with laptops.
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Most people use pen and paper, or directly annotate printed lecture notes/slides.
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Thanks guys, so I guess laptops will only be used for assignments and that jazz.
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My tablet and I are best friends :)
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My tablet and I are best friends :)
Haha man, an ipad is it? I got sick of my ipad pretty fast, all I need is an iphone and a laptop
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Nope, HP Touchpad tm2
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That's pretty neat, how much did you get it for?
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$1200 all up from memory, imported from US. Had it for two years now :)
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Holly cow, that's as much as a laptop! Haha but it looks awesome, I think I'm jelly.
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Seems pricey for a tablet computer, how is it size-wise compared to the iPad 2?
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iPad is garbage. Tried using it in lectures once, was so bad. Definitely get a touchscreen tablet if you're looking for something functional to work with.
Otherwise Pen+Paper :)
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Holly cow, that's as much as a laptop! Haha but it looks awesome, I think I'm jelly.
That's because it is a laptop too essentially. Runs windows 7, has an i5 processor, 4GB RAM, all that jazz. It just has the added benefit of having a touchscreen. If anything, apart from lectures, I don't really use the touchscreen, and just use it as a laptop. So if you compare it to a laptop price wise, it ain't actually that bad.
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iPad is garbage. Tried using it in lectures once, was so bad. Definitely get a touchscreen tablet if you're looking for something functional to work with.
Otherwise Pen+Paper :)
Whats the difference between iPad and other tablets for notes taking?
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iPad is for play, not work.
Less compatibility with files, browser often not too compatible with moodle/blackboard/lms, can't install software, need to buy lots of additional things (apps, special pen, ext keyboard) if you want to make it even on par with the functionality of a windows tablet.
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All an iPad can really do is let you annotate PDFs with the onscreen keyboard. If that's enough, you can save some money on the better tablets but the new Slate from Samsung is amazing and is so much better than the iPad in pretty much every way (other than the price).
I took annotated lecture notes by hand for three years, eventually got tired of that because I continually had to write them out as summary notes, which took up too much time. I'm now switching to a laptop and OneNote because I'm expecting even more material next year to have to learn.
Find out what works for you, it's not that big a deal in the first few weeks.
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I took annotated lecture notes by hand for three years, eventually got tired of that because I continually had to write them out as summary notes, which took up too much time. I'm now switching to a laptop and OneNote because I'm expecting even more material next year to have to learn.
What kind of subjects are you using OneNote with? I'm doing science subjects and last I tried experimenting and found the following:
Annotating lecture notes - ended up with hundreds of pages which are a PITA to carry back and forth. Ended up taking only the latest notes but that can become trouble easily.
Pen + Paper - End up missing things half the time due to fast lecturers. I imagine that even if i took shorter notes, I'd still have to review the lecture notes as well.
I'm considering trying out a laptop w/ onenote next year.
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The MD subjects.
I've used OneNote before in high school and it was great then. I stopped using it in uni because my laptop was too heavy to take around comfortably, but I'm perfectly happy to restart with a light one. Given that you can insert images, pdf slides etc. I'm not to worried about the usability of it for my subjects.
When I annotated my notes, I took only the current notes to uni and never had any trouble with that, not sure what you mean.
I took pen and paper notes briefly and found that yeah, too hard to catch everything.
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Ive only ever used mechanical pencil + notebooks. When I saw students attempting to use technology to their advantage it seemed to caused more trouble for them than good.
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OneNote is the BEST THING EVER. If you're going to use a laptop, use OneNote, you can type all over your lecture powerpoints and highlight things and draw stuff on them (maybe invest in a mouse if you need to draw stuff like chemistry molecules or something)
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Holly cow, that's as much as a laptop! Haha but it looks awesome, I think I'm jelly.
That's because it is a laptop too essentially. Runs windows 7, has an i5 processor, 4GB RAM, all that jazz. It just has the added benefit of having a touchscreen. If anything, apart from lectures, I don't really use the touchscreen, and just use it as a laptop. So if you compare it to a laptop price wise, it ain't actually that bad.
Come to think of it, the price is pretty fair, considering that you can use it as a tablet/laptop. When do you reckon they'll be available in Australia?
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Come to think of it, the price is pretty fair, considering that you can use it as a tablet/laptop. When do you reckon they'll be available in Australia?
They were selling them in Dick Smith a while ago, they've stopped since though.
Agree with the love of OneNote too, works brilliantly with my tablet, lets me scribble all over lecture notes, though I've since invested in PDF Annotator which I find is better for my use. The other awesome thing to use if using a laptop for notes is Dropbox, allows you to keep your lectures notes/assignments on cloud storage, meaning you can access the files from any other computer, smartphone etc.
I had to use pen+paper while my tablet was in for repair, but I found myself losing lecture notes and stuff, not being very organised.
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What laptop did you get Russ?
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if you jailbreak ipad it can become just as useable as etc. etc. i would think
Tablets, whether iOS (jailbroken or un-jailbroken) or Android can only do so much. In my opinion, they're more entertainment oriented rather than productivity oriented.
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Have a laptop because you can have trouble getting a computer at the libraries
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What laptop did you get Russ?
Still deciding, either the UX-31 or the MBA. Might consider the ACER ultrabook if I need to save some cash
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How is the battery life for ultrabooks? I wanted one but it was too expensive and I remember reading some reviews where the battery life wasn't so good. I ended up getting the U36SD.
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Really? Battery life is a pretty big selling point. The MBA/MBP will get at least 5 or 6 hours and the UX should match that easily. They claim 8 hours on the UX but I think 6+ is more realistic if you're using wifi etc.
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How is the battery life for ultrabooks? I wanted one but it was too expensive and I remember reading some reviews where the battery life wasn't so good. I ended up getting the U36SD.
Yah I got the same, annoyed that it doesn't have a backlit keyboard though :( ...probably should've probably read the specs in detail, considering changing to a Dell XPS 14Z. Thoughts?
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Don't buy Dell. Ever.
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Got dell xps 16 studio..one of my worst decision in my life. The quality of the laptop is terrible, shit battery life and it BSOD on me within a month. Stay away from dell at all cost!
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Really? Battery life is a pretty big selling point. The MBA/MBP will get at least 5 or 6 hours and the UX should match that easily. They claim 8 hours on the UX but I think 6+ is more realistic if you're using wifi etc.
Yeah I dunno, I've never had a laptop before but the reviews I saw usually had u36sd at around 6-10 hours (depending on what they were running) and the ultrabooks were always like 4-6 hours. I don't intend to do anything power intensive like play games though so I thought the u36sd was the obvious better choice for me.
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Don't buy Dell. Ever.
Hahaha yeah they aren't the greatest, I've got an XPS 16 now and it's not the best, that's why I've gone back to the trusty old Asus :)
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Sort of bumping this thread, but I was curious as to whether a five kilogram laptop would be too hefty to haul around uni? It is a HP and runs really nicely, so I do not really feel justified in buying a new laptop/ultrabook/tablet unless necessary.
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Sort of bumping this thread, but I was curious as to whether a five kilogram laptop would be too hefty to haul around uni? It is a HP and runs really nicely, so I do not really feel justified in buying a new laptop/ultrabook/tablet unless necessary.
That's probably up to you. I personally wouldn't mind carrying 5kg around...it may also depend on what kind of bag you have. If you have a backpack then 5kg won't feel like much at all.
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Sort of bumping this thread, but I was curious as to whether a five kilogram laptop would be too hefty to haul around uni? It is a HP and runs really nicely, so I do not really feel justified in buying a new laptop/ultrabook/tablet unless necessary.
That's probably up to you. I personally wouldn't mind carrying 5kg around...it may also depend on what kind of bag you have. If you have a backpack then 5kg won't feel like much at all.
How about a satchel with a laptop section? Potentially I could walk around with one shoulder lower than the other? :P
I just will miss my i7 2.0-2.9 GHZ processor if I have to downgrade lol
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Sort of bumping this thread, but I was curious as to whether a five kilogram laptop would be too hefty to haul around uni? It is a HP and runs really nicely, so I do not really feel justified in buying a new laptop/ultrabook/tablet unless necessary.
trust me you dont want to carry a 5kg brick around uni, it gets really tiring.
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Taking a 5kg laptop to university is crazy. You do not need and will not miss a quad core CPU. A backpack *might* make it bearable but I doubt it. If you want to learn with a laptop, buy one of the relatively cheap 2kg ones and save yourself a lot of pain. You'll also get a much better battery life, which is particularly important, especially with the CPU and GPU you'd have in your current laptop
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I recently purchased the UX31. I'm very impressed with the ultrabook. Battery life is around 6 hours which is extremely fair. In every review there were complaints about the touchpad. All problems for me were instantly fixed after the driver update. Keyboard takes some getting used to however. It's extremely light (1.3 kgs i think) and it turns heads (it is fucking beautiful).
However I'm still a fan of pen and paper. You're better off writing the rough notes down on paper and then typing them up later. + distractions are avoided.
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trust me you dont want to carry a 5kg brick around uni, it gets really tiring.
It is a decent laptop, but a bit of a brick compared to the ultrabooks.
Taking a 5kg laptop to university is crazy. You do not need and will not miss a quad core CPU. A backpack *might* make it bearable but I doubt it. If you want to learn with a laptop, buy one of the relatively cheap 2kg ones and save yourself a lot of pain. You'll also get a much better battery life, which is particularly important, especially with the CPU and GPU you'd have in your current laptop
I get decent battery life on this laptop, but I guess weight is the issue at the moment. What models are you talking about when you mean these two kilogram cheap computers?
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5kg in a satchel will probably make your shoulder ache for a long time :P
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It seems I need a more portable piece of tech. Where I am going to get the money for such, I have no idea. ???
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you can get small, very light, cheapo laptops at JB for like $300 now
they'd be good for typing notes and not much else
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you can get small, very light, cheapo laptops at JB for like $300 now
they'd be good for typing notes and not much else
Looking at the catalogue now. Thanks ;D
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you can get small, very light, cheapo laptops at JB for like $300 now
they'd be good for typing notes and not much else
Really? That's really cheap...about the same as a netbook.