Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

If you want to get the most out of a physics lecture, leave the laptop at home. Instead, bring a spiral notebook and some colored pens. Write everything down the prof writes on the blackboard.

It's remarkable how much of the lecture you'll remember. And when you read your handwritten notes, you'll remember the lecture that went with it.



Suggestion: Write on the right hand page and leave the left page blank (that's the back of the page if you fold the pages over).

Then go over the notes later and summarise or add details on those left hand pages. I used to do the colour pen/highlighting then.

Worked for me half a century ago. No data format problems or need for legacy hardware either.


But I am left-handed!

Jokes aside, I often used to take notes only on the left side because of it, and sometimes the right side, except upside down.


Yeah good luck writing with coloured pens at the speed teachers speak.


I managed it for 4 years in college, with usually 3 hours of lecture per day. Was it work? Sure. One was busy the whole lecture. But the results were clear.

My favorite pens at the time were the Pilot pens. Today I love the Tul pens.

I have long since scanned them all in. I should post them on my website, just for fun.


3h of lecture per day isn't much for university.


Why are you focusing on what they are saying, rather than what they are writing (there's an important distinction)?


I would copy what they were writing. The professors had 9 blackboards available, and they'd use them all during a 55 minute lecture, and then some. Some would write with their left hand while erasing with the right (!). It was a heluva time for me. Never before or since have I learned so much so fast. Blink and I fell behind.

In retrospect, I sorely wished I had set up a cassette recorder and recorded all the audio. It would be a gold mine today, as all those lectures are lost to time.

On the other hand, I had no money to buy cassette tapes at the time.


I never learnt much in those sort of lectures. Eventually I figured out I needed to study the material before the lecture and use the lecture to cement what I had already learnt or occasionally answer questions that had come up.


Sorry, I was replying to guappa suggesting that they were focusing on the wrong thing.




Consider applying for YC's Winter 2026 batch! Applications are open till Nov 10

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: