In my courses notebook I had section groups organized by semester, sections organized by courses, and pages organized by class lecture days. I had a notebook for my courses, my research and background guides for my extracurriculars, and at one point I had a notebook for general to do lists. OneNote is fantastic because it has so many levels of organization that comes with the familiarity of Microsoft Word formatting: you have notebooks, section groups, sections, pages, and page groups, all of which allow you to effectively organize any class. Plus, handwritten notes take away the possibility of adding clarifications throughout the document after the lecture is over, which I tend to do as I do my reading assignments. And when your teachers talk a mile per minute, it’s nearly impossible to ensure you have all the relevant information if you’re writing in your notebook. While many study blogs herald the importance of handwritten notes to help with memory, I found that if I attempted to handwrite my notes I would focus too much on making my lecture notes pretty instead of what the professor was saying. I used OneNote for over a year and a half to take notes for my lectures, primarily from sophomore to junior year. Through my time at University I explored the ins-and-outs of various applications, and in my opinion, these are three most effective applications I’ve found to help me with the two most important aspects of my classes: note-taking and readings.

When I was at school, the most important thing I looked for in my applications is ease of use and connectivity: I needed programs that made my crazy-hectic life with a million and one obligations that much easier to manage across all of my devices, which can be difficult when both my phone and tablet are Apple products but my computer is a PC. For most students, classes have either started back up or will be starting up soon, which means it’s time to make your decision for the semester: how exactly are you going to take notes in your classes? In this digital age taking notes the classic way has fallen by the wayside in favor of the many apps and programs touting increased productivity and connectivity, meaning that students have more options than ever before when it comes to their educational organization.

Notability vs onenote vs evernote