Remember, when deciding the best way to take effective class notes, the important thing to do is figure out what works best for you. To some students, the sense of organization that a laptop can provide is a lifesaver. For other students, the old-school pen and paper is a much better option. Or perhaps a combination of the two -- paper in some classes and lectures, and computer in others -- is your best strategy.

Advantages of Taking Class Notes on a Laptop

One of the biggest advantages to taking notes on a computer is that your finished product will be so much neater, especially if your handwriting is less than fabulous. Yes, you may wind up with a document full of typos and grammatical error s-- but that's very easy to fix with spell check and some proofreading. But even if your document doesn't read perfectly, it will look a whole lot better than chicken scrawl in a notebook.

Another advantage to taking notes on a laptop is it's so much easier to organize your notes. If a professor's lecture is a bit disorganized, you can organize bits and pieces of the lecture until it makes more sense. And when it comes time to study for exams, you can cut and paste material to simplify the process.