I didn’t take notes in HS or college. I found that the textbooks were sufficient. I never could figure out why students around me were writing furiously trying to copy down everything the teacher or professor said. It was a stupid thing in my mind..............
I can answer that, for me, sometimes the teacher would mention something not in the book. Also, taking notes helped reinforce the lessons for me. It also kept me focused on what was going on in class.
It helps to write things down to commit them to memory. You must be blessed with an especially good memory. Most of us aren’t.
Some courses the prof / teacher would pretty much follow the text. Some courses they went pretty far afield. And some courses - especially in college - I couldn't even follow what they were talking about.
Ah, the old days, when your teacher could stand in front of the class at the blackboard, smoking a cigarette and writing and speaking.
Depends if the teacher taught from the book, or not.
LOL, if I knew the teacher basically only taught the book, the only time I’d show up in class was for the exams.
People perceive, process, and store information differently. The research by Meyers and Briggs turned up four major ways, with multiple variations. For instance, people who are highly visual may not catch all the details or implications of the spoken words until reading them again and forming mental pictures. Such people may have difficulty with the abstractions of math “word problems”, but excel off the charts at geometry, and at understanding the flow-through design of systems. They might become engineers, architects, vascular or brain surgeons, or automotive designers.
You ever had a libtard arts professor who didn’t test off the textbook, but his own bullshit ramblings? That’s why you take notes...
People with tactile memory memorize by transcription (this is also when people learn a skill by doing/practicing a skill). If you naturally have another method that works well for you (sounds like you have a bit of a photographic memory), that’s great. Most of the planet is made up of tactile learners however (which is why we train people the way we do), so you best not treat them with arrogance. Your memory is from the eye to the brain, some are from the ear to the brain, some (a lot of chefs and somaliers) are from the tongue/nose to the brain, and some from the hand to the brain.
I always used notes to remember key pages, paragraphs etc. One key word would help me to remember a whole section. They say you remember more when writing things down but then again everyone is different!
I was the same way. Even in my professional life I rarely, if ever take notes.
The funniest thing was going to a meeting with lawyers involved and they are scribbling down notes. So now that I’ve been in a senior management position for the last 17 years, we always have a lawyer in the room, so if I can’t recall something, I just ask for their copy...
In that physical chemistry class, the prof was an ass and spent the lectures writing full speed on 2 walls of blackboard with his back to us and holding a sheath of paper. Usually he used up all the blackboards so would circle to the front, erase and put fresh writing up. The tests and quizzes were 90+% from the blackboard and the homework from the textbook. Problem was the blackboard material had very little in common with the textbook. Turns out the jerk was writing a text book for publication and using the book draft for the lecture backbone. In summary, no notes then no pass the class and homework was hell.
In physical chemistry and all my engineering classes, a single page cheat sheet was allowed and encouraged for tests. We used it for equations and whatever else each person considered critical. The focus was on doing things correctly not simply demonstrating rote memorization. Besides that, you slip into the twilight zone of thinking in math and symbols instead words. Weird...
I also have a degree in microbiology. Completely the opposite of engineering as it is largely rote memorization. For me, I usually recorded the lectures for playback each evening as it was key to laying out the why of things and definitely the emphasis items that showed up in tests.
Now, while I had to surrender the photographic memory of everything to the dustbin, I did retain a very functional photographic memory of the table of contents so to speak. In this, I have an outline of sorts in the noggin and retrieve details as needed via textbooks, professional and technical publications, companies, peers, professional contacts and such. I don’t feel the need nor do I need to know everything myself. This has been a great advantage in my non-traditional career paths.
I’ve already gone way overboard with thoughts so am going to shamelessly toss this out without going down the rabbit hole. Photographic memory easily leads to a focus on what to think. All too easily, especially for analytical personality persons like me, this can hinder a person in learning how to think.
Now to Amy Barrett, the topic at hand. All of Supreme Court justices sitting now and nominated like Barrett have an immense quantity of legal knowledge crammed in their head. They also rely heavily on exact words written on paper and a staff of clerks to provide detailed info to them to support or refute their initial opinions. She as other nominees before her, has had to do a lot of preparation to prepare for these days of inquisition.
So did I, that's why I never made it to college........
You would have crashed and burned in modern high school. Today's students must diligently attend to the instructor's version of the class which often contradicts the textbook. The exception is when the text is written by the instructor, a common case in higher education.
Many of my classes in college had lectures that gave out more information that was in the textbooks. We had to read the textbooks just to have enough background to understand where the prof was going. Mostly biological research.
I didnt have the time or brains to go through the books in physics and calculus and figure it out. Depended on class notes for that.
Different ways of learning.
If I read it I will remember it.
If I hear I am the proverbial, in one ear and out the other unless you are really interesting and the information is dense. In that case I will be taking notes, which I will then read and toss.
My eye brain connection is good, ear brain is dicey. Except for poetry. That I will hear and remember.