Based on the advice of his parents, Finn decided to take notes using the traditional pen and paper approach. But in his lecture classes just about everyone uses a laptop. Also, he struggles to write down everything the lecturer says. Did he make the wrong decision? Is it too late to change? A related problem is he has difficulty keeping his paper based notes organised.

Ask students why they use a pen and paper, and they will say things like "it helps them concentrate", "it avoids the distractions of electronic devices", "it’s easier to draw diagrams or illustrations". Those who prefer laptops cite the ability to take down more information as well as easily search or reorganise the material later. Furthermore, they complain that taking paper notes resulted in them "drowning in a million bits of paper".

A number of studies have examined which is superior. One study by Mueller & Oppenheimer had students take notes from various lectures such as TED Talks, either by laptops (disconnected from the internet) or by traditional longhand. They concluded that longhand note-taking is superior [1]. There are a number of theories as to why this might be, but one problem with laptops is that students tend to take more verbatim notes as opposed to summarising and writing down ideas in their own words. Verbatim note-taking means that students aren’t processing the material as deeply and hence are less likely to learn it at a conceptual level .

Broadly speaking, it appears that the different note-taking approaches lead to different strategies. The pen and paper strategy involves recording more images and visual signals and a summary of the verbal ideas. Whereas the laptop strategy involves a more complete transcription of the verbal ideas but fewer images and visual signals. Visual signals in notes include underlining, arrows, circles, all-capitals, and so on, and are used to indicate that certain ideas are especially important. These images and paraphrased lecture ideas help facilitate later revision [2]. Even when the lecture material doesn’t contain images, students taking notes using a pen and paper or whiteboard spontaneously produce more maps and drawings which in turn predicts learning outcomes [3].

A recent 2024 review of existing studies concluded that making and revising longhand notes was superior to those taken on a laptop when it came to performance on a subsequent quiz [4]. Yet it is important to highlight that the size of the effect isn’t that large and a number of studies failed to find a difference. For example a study by Heather Urry and colleagues found no difference between the laptop and longhand note takers in terms of factual recall and conceptual application of the lecture content [5]. They did, however, confirm the finding that using a laptop lead to a higher number of words being recorded and more verbatim overlap of the lecture content.

Overall then there appears to be some evidence that taking notes by hand improves conceptual understanding via a mechanism of forcing students to think deeply about the material during note-taking. This happens due to being unable to write down everything the lecturer says and hence needing to summarise the material and pick the most relevant facts. In other words handwritten notes facilitate encoding of the lecture information into memory [6].

From a practical perspective though, university life is different from the laboratory environment. While a student using a laptop may not process the material as deeply during the lecture, the material will likely be reviewed several times and perhaps rewritten before any test. These additional review cycles may reduce any impact of the original note-taking technique.

Most of the existing studies compare students using blank paper and pens versus those using a laptop with a blank Microsoft Word document, but more and more students are using a tablet and stylus with digital note-taking apps. These apps offer a range of useful features and are constantly being improved. It’s possible that students can develop an optimal strategy that combines the best aspects of longhand note-taking and using a laptop. Tablet users are able to utilise both a stylus and an attached keyboard.

So what approach should Finn, the student who had a dilemma between pen and paper versus a laptop, use moving forward? The evidence in favour of using a pen and paper isn’t strong enough to say that everyone should make longhand notes. It makes sense to experiment using a laptop and see how it fits into his overall study strategy. A digital approach comes with additional benefits such as ease of making backups, sharing notes, ability to search, and copying material to flashcard software to name a few. Existing notes can be scanned or typed into documents.

If Finn makes the decision to continue with pen and paper, then he needs to think about organisation, such as having one A4 notebook per unit. That way everything is in one place and in sequential order. He also needs to adapt his note-taking so that he doesn’t try to write down everything the lecturer says. Notes aren’t supposed to be a transcript. Instead, focus on key ideas, if any information is missed, it can be added later by consulting the lecture slides, textbook or other resources.

The most common lecture format these days is the lecturer clicking through a series of PowerPoint slides while discussing their content. A popular approach to note-taking is to print out the slides beforehand and then add additional notes. If that isn’t possible, refer to the slide title in your notes so you can keep information organised, i.e. Slide Title: note1 note2 note3

Writing notes quickly in the lecture can also be good practice if you are still required to sit pen and paper exams. Some students have found their hand cramping in a written exam because they aren’t used to writing for such an extended period.

If you do decide to use a laptop or tablet, think about how to capture information like diagrams or formulas. Some students like to take a photo, or cut and snip from lecture slides or official course notes. The first few weeks at university are a good time to experiment with different workflows.

Ultimately, it comes down to personal preference, with the best approach depending on the particular course a student is studying. For those with lots of diagrams and equations, pen and paper may be better. Some students take notes by hand in the lecture then type them up later. Others type them during the lecture and make revision notes by hand. One student commented, "I tend to use my laptop in lectures but when I’m studying I prefer to summarise my notes by hand as it helps me learn the material!". The existing evidence isn’t strong enough to say that one approach is the best.