How I Take Notes on my iPad as a College Engineering Student (2021)

Since people were asking me how I take notes in my Notability vs. GoodNotes 5 comparison video, I decided to make a separate one showing you my note-taking process. I hope this helps some of you out and you can take a tip or two from it! :)
Gear I use:
11" iPad Pro (2020): amzn.to/3l8M6f1 (affiliate)
Apple Pencil 2nd gen: amzn.to/39mxRAI (affiliate)
Deity V-Mic D4 Mini: amzn.to/3FGAoSe (affiliate)
Canon M50 with Kit Lens: amzn.to/3LZKHmQ (affiliate)
If you want to check out my comparison between Notability and GoodNotes 5 the link for it is right here: • Notability vs GoodNote...
CHEERS!!!
#ipad #goodnotes5 #notability #notes #tech #engineering #school
Timecodes
0:00 - Intro
1:29 - Organization
2:12 - Writing Settings
3:03 - Color System
4:44 - Note-Taking
6:06 - Example
7:35 - Comments on Example
8:02 - iPad Calculator
9:00 - Lecture Notes
11:00 - Exporting a Document
11:36 - Example from Notability
12:12 - Outro

[@linnhtet001]

This one is actually the most realistic, down to earth "note taking on iPad" video. Not like all those aesthetic, anatomy note taking videos on tik tok. Great videos man. Thank you so much!

[@alondracarreno1376]

oh yes, the nursing students and their aesthetic ipads 😂

[@mrtikaani4078]

My biggest college regret is not practicing good note taking. This is a great soft skill that can get you the job you want. Appreciate the video

[@NathanLemoine]

It has definitely helped me a lot throughout college! Hope this video gives you some new ways of taking notes for the future though!

[@milindbebarta2226]

Thanks for the video Nathan. When you add a page in between two slides, you can keep the dimensions of the added page kinda consistent by using the 'rotate this page' option.

[@NathanLemoine]

Thank you for letting me know! I'll give that a try this semester :)

[@olelaustsen8657]

Hi Nathan, thanks for the video! You do a great job showcasing goodnotes in a practical way. Thanks again from 🇸🇪😍

[@NathanLemoine]

Thank you for the kind words! Glad to have helped :)

[@saadehmarsel]

Good review thank you for taking the time and making this video ! 37 and going for my 3rd EE degree ,, better late than never ! This helps plenty !

[@NathanLemoine]

Hey congrats man! Best of luck with the degree, it will help you further down the road having that!

[@polarbear986]

Thank you for explaning it in details. That was very helpful:)

[@NathanLemoine]

Glad to have helped! :)

[@Blockxblock]

Good video. Thank you for sharing your system.

[@aarushikhamankar5183]

Great video. This really motivated me to organize my messy notes :)

[@NathanLemoine]

Glad to have helped with the motivation!

[@denniscohle3786]

Thanks, super helpful!

[@Goooogle]

Also, good videos bro. I wish all the best to you in your academic career and with this channel. Do you make use of the handwritten math equations into LaTex converter tool? What do you think about it?

[@TheHackingZombies]

I take the best notes now!

[@lustrous444]

great video!! helped a lot :)

[@NathanLemoine]

Thank you! Glad to have helped!

[@estherking8755]

Great video, I use GoodNotes too and I am junior at DePaul University. The way we organize our notes is so different. Cool method.

[@NathanLemoine]

Thank you for the message! But whatever way works for you is the best way. Hopefully I gave you some new tips you hadn’t know / thought of before though! :)

[@estherking8755]

@@NathanLemoine you definitely did.

[@HaVocHarMony]

LOVE THIS! I hope you're acing mathematics!!!

[@aaronlea7240]

Great video, I really appreciate you making this - it was so useful, I’ll definitely be utilising your colour scheme. Keep up the work man, these quality of these vids are top tier!. It was ace seeing some of the physics applied to engineering as well like Young’s modulus. Quick question, are you going to carry on with goodnotes, or revert back to Notability in the future?

[@NathanLemoine]

Glad to have helped! and Really appreciate the love bro, trying to make them as good as I know how too right now! And I haven't fully decided yet. I will probably go back to notability in the future, but before I completely switch over next semester I'm going to give it a week using notability and then I will decide

[@aaronlea7240]

@@NathanLemoine mate with content like what you’ve posted so far, your on track for success! . Fair enough, honestly I still can’t decide. The double tap undo on GoodNotes is better I think, and the template freedom on GoodNotes is much better. But I still think notability shines it out in everything else ngl - especially if your a STEM student. I really notice the difference when studying maths and physics

[@NathanLemoine]

If you can already see the benefits of Notability for STEM majors then I say go for it, I absolutely loved it and miss it a lot since I’ve been using Goodnotes!

[@aaronlea7240]

@@NathanLemoine Agreed , cheers man!

[@lorisartside3144]

Great video❤️

[@NathanLemoine]

Thank you!!! Trying my best :)

[@mohammadmusaddiqfaizan7343]

Good one. Learned a lot. Would you prefer GoodNotes or notability ?

[@zEre326]

Great video Nathan! I’m a civil engineering student, so this is super helpful, what are your templates for your paper ?

[@NathanLemoine]

Awesome I'm glad you found this helpful! And honestly I don't use any template haha. I usually use the grid/ square paper for notability and Good Notes 5, and for notability I use size 2-3 spacing. Hope this helps :)

[@Goooogle]

How did you get the laser pointer in Notability? Are you using a beta version? I would like to learn how you back up and generally organize your notes. Apparently there are a lot of cases of people losing all of their files in Notability for no reason, and with no option to get them back.

[@ShinyArjunSingh]

Nice one subscribed, Please keep it comin.....

[@NathanLemoine]

Thank you very much! And I will, don't plan on stopping 😈

[@EXE-wy2fg]

damn my name is nathan, i want to do engineering, i have an ipad and im not to worried about neatness this vid was really informative, truly great content 100% desrves a sub Awesome work man

[@NathanLemoine]

Haha hey thats awesome! What type of engineering are you thinking about? And thank you so much for the support, it means a lot to me Nathan 🙏🏻

[@peaceofmind6141]

All engineers deserve a subscribe😊

[@NathanLemoine]

Thank you I really appreciate it :)

[@blackdurian3601]

You can use excel if you didnt want to use graphic calculator too. No need to pay those calculator trial lol. And you can make horisontal page. Try to see and search in the new page section 🔽 Also I like how you take an engineering note. I wish I have an ipad when I was in college. I was so stupid thinking Ipad is expensive back then.

[@NathanLemoine]

The calculator app I got is free, there’s just a lot of pop up ads haha. But yes, excel is a great alternative! And I have tried to switch to horizontal page layout, and the pages on GoodNotes 5 still don’t exactly line up with the PDF’s, at least from my experience. And thank you! :)

[@adrienferreira4666]

I use NumWorks on my phone, maybe it exists for iPad too. It handles SI units. No ads at all.

[@maxit1082]

Hi. Which iPad should I go with? I can buy an iPad air 5 for $370 and 12.9” m1 iPad Pro for $620. (Both are used and I have a macbook air as well.) My main usage will be note taking, reading news, papers, articles, watching youtube videos and mostly for the educational purposes.

[@lucacostardi1932]

Nice video

[@NathanLemoine]

Thank you man, appreciate it!

[@pgenuino]

Could you make videos showing better how to use goodnotes with pdf files? I liked your organization, really good.

[@davidzevrain392]

Hello Nice video , what is the name of the application that could carry pdfs?

[@Robbrown92]

do you write in landscape but use a portrait page style?

[@bclynch1891]

Can you do this same lesson using Notability ?

[@dongmalonda8480]

Thanks for the video! I am using my ipad mini 5 as my note taking device but i had a problem with retention. As of thsi moment, I am planning to switch to a bigger ipad but I am not sure whether paperlike will be useful - are you using that? does it help with the retention?

[@NathanLemoine]

I have not specifically used a Paperlike screen protector, but I have heard mixed reviews on it. I had a generic matte screen protector from amazon for almost a year and it worked well. It made the writing experience feel more like pencil and paper and reduced overhead light glare. I definitely think its worth it to get some kind of cheap pack of matte screen protectors off amazon, and save the extra money it would cost for the Paperlike :)

[@dongmalonda8480]

@@NathanLemoine thanks! I am aiming to buy an ipad pro this month. I feel like the mini is to small for note taking

[@ZZ3NoO0]

Great video but as someone who takes sixth form notes with an ipad on goodnotes, i have a concern, would it not be better to do past papers physically rather than the ipad? This is because you would not be able to do real deal exams/mock exams on the ipad and you would still have to be used to writing with a normal pen. Would love to know what you think about this because obviously you wouldn't want to be sloppy at writing on paper during an exam.

[@NathanLemoine]

Honestly, I still think my handwriting on paper and pencil is better / more neat than on my iPad. While the feeling of writing on an iPad is close, it's not quite there and the palm rejection doesn't always work 100% of the time. So whenever I have to write on paper and pencil again, it's like riding a bike, you never really forget or lose neatness, and you might even be surprised at what your handwriting is like once you have to write on paper ever few weeks!

[@FACTUAL_KEY]

Hey Nathan.. im also an engineering student and was thinking an ipad for note taking.. umm do you think 128gb will be enough for keeping all the different subjects?

[@NathanLemoine]

Hey, 100 percent! 128GB will be more than enough to last you for college!

[@163rby]

cant find that calculator app

[@MariadeLourdesAniesSanch-ze7hf]

I like help me because is easy

[@MariadeLourdesAniesSanch-ze7hf]

I like ipad

[@MariadeLourdesAniesSanch-ze7hf]

I think same ipad

[@cezarstietot2417]

do you use a screen protector on your ipda, if yes which one?

[@NathanLemoine]

I do not anymore. I used to use a generic matte screen protector you can buy on amazon for less than $10, but I removed it a few months ago and have yet to get a new one for my iPad. I do recommend a matte screen protector especially if you takes notes in lectures and want to minimize overhead light glare on the screen. I removed it because I was using my iPad for video editing and the nature of matte protectors, you lose a little bit of clarity and I wanted to maximize the quality while I was editing.

[@andreasholt2633]

Do you find the 11 inch to be sufficient? I can''t decide between the 11 and 12.9 inch haha. I have a laptop and external monitors, so it wont a laptop replacement, more of a supplement for note taking

[@NathanLemoine]

I promise you, for notetaking the 11 inch iPad is plenty big. There is more then enough screen real-estate where note taking isn't crammed. It's also not too big so it won't make your desk or pull out desks in large lecture halls feel too cluttered. Its lighter and easier to carry in your backpack along side a laptop. Use the money you save with the 11 inch to either get more storage or the apple pencil too! I hope this helped :)

[@RuthieOnTheMobile]

I'm not sure if you're still deciding, but I've used both as a student. I prefer my 12.9. I can use split screen (one for goodnotes, and another for my textbook) a lot more easier. I loved the portability of my 11 inch (which my daughter now uses). I still find my 12.9 is relatively portable but I had to get it insured as I felt it was more likely to get stolen when in coffee shops etc than my smaller one. I'm an Open University student, so don't go to a lecture hall and anything that was face to face was normally in a proper classroom, so desk space wasn't an issue.

[@krupa-366]

Who know's that he is an Civil engineering student 😎

[@zherox434]

que pasa maquina

[@KhoiNguyen-oo1jq]

Are you using a 12.9 or 11 inch iPad?

[@NathanLemoine]

I have the 11 inch iPad Pro 2020 :) Honestly plenty big for a college student and doesn't take up too much room in your backpack either

[@MariadeLourdesAniesSanch-ze7hf]

I think study in my phone and ipad

[@aditraj4492]

Do you use a matte screen protector?

[@NathanLemoine]

Yes I did for the first whole year of using my iPad. They’re great for diminishing glare from overhead lights (such as in a classroom) and also make the writing experience feel more like paper and pencil. Definitely recommend getting one, just remember that it ever so slightly adds a sort of grainy look to the screen, but the pros outweigh the cons for sure.

[@aditraj4492]

@@NathanLemoine but don't you think that would be not fair with the mini led display of the m1 ipad pro

[@aditraj4492]

@@NathanLemoine do you also use it now too or have you adopted to the bare display

[@NathanLemoine]

It is a little unfair for the amazing screen on the iPad but if you're in a setting with those bright overhead lights then I think its worth it. Sometimes without the matte screen protector I wasn't even able to see half of the display because of the glare.

[@NathanLemoine]

About a month ago I decided to try using my iPad without any screen protector because I was getting terrible palm rejection while taking notes on my iPad. The pen strokes would shoot across the display when my palm was resting on it and wanted to see if the screen protector was causing this. Now after a month of not using one I have come to the conclusion that there may be something wrong with my Apple Pencil because it still keeps on happening so I may have to get a new one soon :/

[@ChenshengZhang-cq6us]

I guess you are a civil engineering student😄(from your notes)

[@nubraayt5926]

Beo r u doing mechanical Engineering?

[@NathanLemoine]

Yes I indeed am. Currently in a Master's program for mechanical as well 😵‍💫

[@jackyluu1311]

Hi Nathan, I am also a 3rd year mechanical engineering student. It would be my pleasure if you can share your notes with me? i am really want to learn more from an outside source. cheers!

[@TCamp72a]

What was the name of the calculator app you referenced?

[@NathanLemoine]

Taculator graphing calculator, I like the clean layout of it!

[@MariadeLourdesAniesSanch-ze7hf]

I study in my phone I win

[@MariadeLourdesAniesSanch-ze7hf]

I like study with you

[@hektorm2306]

Mech. Eng. Here, I just use different colored pens and paper to take notes. I have an iPad Pro, now. I don’t like the pen to screen feel even with the special paper.

[@NathanLemoine]

By special paper do you mean like a matte screen protector?