How I Take Notes as an Engineering Student

[@anonymoususer4356]

I started University for Mech E at 29. First semester i used traditional notebooks. Second semester I purchased an iPad. You can make monthly payments on it if that helps as it is quite expensive. With ZERO interest. At first the digital platform was tricky for my visual/structured brain. After a while though I would NEVER go back to traditional notebooks. You can store EVERY note you take from day 1 in university like he said in the video. You can have every textbook for each course in good notes as well. I can refer back to any notes with a search feature or a click of a button. The best part of the digital notes is how convenient it is to have everything in one place, and how easy it is to reorganize with copy/paste. You will spend 10 minutes making a cheat sheet, while your peers take one plus hours to re write everything. Some re writing is good but at a point you reach diminishing returns and its just wasted time. In the future i believe digital notes will be the universal standard.

[@BEngHielscher]

Thanks for sharing this! Digital notes have so many advantages both in the short and long term. I couldn’t imagine doing uni without them :)

[@ewa_on_spotify]

You know specially which thing you used? setup? haha :)

[@AngusMcAlister14]

just finished my first semester for aero and my first exam. reflecting on the semester, I don't think I was studying smart and I think I burnt out. whilst I was writing stuff down like you did, except without the lecture slides, I failed to "find the gaps" and subconsciously I thought "if I'm making these great notes, surely I will understand it," but I don't think that was the case. after watching this, I think it would've been better to take the time to read through the lecture notes as the lecturer is talking, and write down any important information with question marks if I didn't understand it. it not only seems to save so much time as opposed to writing every little paragraph that the teacher says, but its also super convenient to mark any objections you have. next semester I think I'll start importing slides into OneNote, and really focus on understanding the material as opposed to making pretty notes.

[@BEngHielscher]

It’s awesome to hear that you have taken the time to reflect on your past semester and have got a game plan for the next one. It’s so important to optimise your study and I can tell you are on the right track. Great job! Best of luck next semester :)

[@huridiaz8655]

Thank you for the tips, I´ll apply them this new semester

[@BEngHielscher]

Hi Huri, no worries at all! I wish you the best of luck this semester :)

[@HazemAli__]

Finally, a fellow engineering student talking about how study, istg medical students have a monopoly over this niche I have one question tho, after you capture everything from your lectures and tutorials, you said they look messy right, so I was wondering do you go back and rewrite them neatly in a new note so it is clearer when you revise?

[@ashenmorayas1112]

That’s step 4, u gather all ur resources and make a note that doesn’t require any additional material to understand.

[@artem_kyselov]

Just got my first Surface. Preparing my note taking strategy for the year from your videos

[@BEngHielscher]

Awesome! I definitely have a few videos that should help you with this. Also, I’m posting a video in approximately 10 hours that explains all the benefits you get from taking digital notes and I think it could be inspiring for you. Stay tuned! :)

[@ewa_on_spotify]

I have one big question. When do you do those 4 steps? Like do you do it while taking notes or you go back to your notes at home right after the lessons? Also I have always been a paper lover, but i hate the way you cant make new space on your paper. You dont have infinite space and I do not find a way to print the slides in a way i can just write things down on the sides... You know how to? This made me think to start doing on a tablet, but is it printable or how does it work? If you help me thanks in advance!!!!

[@Yakubi]

Starting CpE soon, this sounds like good advice to me!

[@BEngHielscher]

Good luck and thank you! :)

[@TriDoHuu]

Thank you so much

[@BEngHielscher]

My pleasure!

[@zohayer.mehtab]

Thank you

[@BEngHielscher]

My pleasure!

[@rhodium8505]

Starting a new semester today and there's no better prep than rewatching your videos! One question; From this video I understood you download the lecture slides before the lecture starts. I was wondering, do you read the textbook or any material before the lecture? Or do you just use the textbook when there's a concept you want to further understand? I.e., how do you make use of the course textbook?

[@BEngHielscher]

I find the course textbook to helpful when revising. In most instances I found it easier to be exposed to the concepts in class first before going through the textbook on my own

[@danielnguyen7398]

Hey Ben, how did you make the note title "special" at 6:47? I'm trying to implement your same system myself on OneNote. From your other video on the structure of your onenote notebooks you had the pages in chronological order like W1L1 etc. What would the title of the special solution be and would you still categorise it chronologically? Cheers

[@BEngHielscher]

Hey Daniel, the first time I would do the tutorial questions in class with the teacher my notes would be all over the place because I was rushing and trying to get everything down. The title of this note would be W1T1 etc. After uni that day I would come home and basically re-write the solution and add formulas/graphs/tables etc. next to my solution. This new version of solutions for that same week 1 tutorial would then be called W1T1 GCOPY. GCopy is me abbreviating “good copy”. This gcopy version is then what I would refer to when revising these questions :)

[@danielnguyen7398]

@@BEngHielscher Perfect thank you once again. It's unbelievable how you don't have more subs, although I feel like your big breakthrough is coming soon :))

[@bobthesir1467]

How long do you wait before reviewing your lecture and slide notes to find any gaps?

[@BEngHielscher]

I would try and do this that night. That way if I had the same class again tomorrow I was ready for the new content

[@vincecerna14]

Hi there! Thanks for the information. By the way, I found out that there are two OneNote in my PC. The OneNote and OneNote for windows 10. Which one do you use?

[@BEngHielscher]

Hey! Good pickup :) I actually use both. When I’m handwriting notes I like to use OneNote for Windows 10 but when I want to export my notes as a pdf or view them on an older computer I use OneNote (notes sync across both apps).

[@androidenthusiast4943]

Thanks!

[@BEngHielscher]

My pleasure! Thanks for your feedback :)

[@Christine-mg6oo]

It's so difficult taking digital notes I'm using hp envy computer and it moved around a lot 😩

[@BEngHielscher]

Oh no that’s annoying! Perhaps if you put a rubber case or some other material that has a bit more friction it won’t move around when you write :)

[@Christine-mg6oo]

@@BEngHielscher Oh Really! I'll try that! Thank you!

[@owenashe4817]

Do you think there would be any downsides to doing the first step (capture) on iPad since it’s easy to annotate note slides and you doing have to print them off. And then do the last step (consolidate) into a physical notebook. I prefer the feel of physical pen and paper, but I also like the easy of use of a tablet, so I feel like this would be a good balance. Just wondering your thoughts. Thanks!

[@s1rhoneybadger673]

I’m not the creator, but I think that would work fine. You’ll probably notice that it’s a lot more time intensive though. This won’t save any time, but you might look into Rocket Books if you really like paper notes. You could also consider consolidating digitally, and then printing the document for future review. Adding notes to things you want to change or just for reference.

[@carlocalingasan998]

Is One note able to recognize the handwriting so you can search it as a keyword when you happen to forget where your note is?

[@BEngHielscher]

Hey Carlo, Yes OneNote does recognise handwritten notes when using the search function! You can also filter the results by notebook, section or page :)

[@carlocalingasan998]

@@BEngHielscher That's great, I will be getting the surface 8 next month. Very excited. Thank you.

[@BEngHielscher]

That’s awesome! I’m excited for you too. My surface pro changed my life at university. I hope yours helps you a lot too :)

[@thilakdissanayaka2330]

Could you please consider sharing some of your notes?

[@BEngHielscher]

Hey I might be sharing some resources soon, stay on the lookout :)

[@lukhanyo5084]

Lmaooo, i actually came here to see how i can Organize my notes on deflection of beams what a coincidence