Pen vs PC

Confidence in Exam taking

Pen vs PC

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Is It Better to Take Notes by Hand or Digitally?

The sound of Bic pens racing across lined exam pads have long been replaced by the furious tapping of keyboards. But does the convenience of taking study notes on a digital device come at a price? Numerous studies make a case for the good ol’ pen and paper.

There is plenty of research that confirms that writing your notes, rather than using a laptop, is more effective. 

One study done by Psychological Science asked students to take notes on a TED talk using their preferred note-taking strategy. Then they answered factual-recall questions and conceptual-application questions.

Both types of note takers did well on the factual-recall questions, but laptop users did "significantly worse" on the conceptual questions. 
"When people type their notes, they have a tendency to try to take verbatim notes. The students who were taking longhand notes in our studies were forced to be more selective because you can't write as fast as you can type. And that extra processing of the material that they were doing benefited them."   Study author, Pam Mueller NPR.

Watch this

Reasons Why Longhand Note-taking is Best

1. It is less distracting. No Instagram, takealot.com, or YouTube begging to be given attention.

2. It takes up less space in your bag, and it's safer to carry around.

3. It is also safer from a "back-up" pov. No worries about frying your hard drive just before a major exam.

4. As seen in the study and video above, writing your study notes by hand is more effective. As well as being visual, writing is kinesthetic - it's a movement. By connecting information to something else that you know, you stimulate and add dendrites. By processing and writing a version of what you heard, you take it up a notch, by making it your information and embedding it in your memory.

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