Name: Handwritten vs Typed Notes | Note-Taking for Straight-A Students
Uploaded: 2022-10-29T17:56:13.000Z
Duration: 9 min 32 s
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Taking effective notes is essential to becoming a top student, but with so many note-taking

strategies out there, it can be overwhelming to decide which ones to use.

Here are some tips and strategies to help you take better notes this year.

The first thing to consider is whether to handwrite or type your notes.

Although some people will tell you that one approach is inherently better than the other,

Much of the research concerning handwritten vs typed notes is observational, meaning the

researchers ask students how they take notes and compare it to their performance on tests

They use this data to draw conclusions about the effectiveness of each note-taking strategy.

The problem is that there are numerous variables that go into academic performance beyond handwriting

or typing your notes that need to be controlled for.

There are your specific note-taking strategies, how you review your notes, and the other study

Of the studies that use experimental designs, the consensus seems to be that there is no

significant difference between handwritten vs typed note-taking strategies.

Whether you should write or type your notes will depend on many factors, so let’s discuss

some of the pros and cons of each method.

On the one hand, handwriting your notes forces you to slow down and focus on what you’re

It is estimated that the average person writes at a speed of approximately 20 words per minute

whereas the average teacher talks at about 170 words per minute.

There’s simply not enough time to write down every single word.

Instead, you have to filter out the most important details and consolidate the information being

This process of taking in information, condensing it, and physically writing it down takes more

mental energy than copying notes verbatim.

This means that you’re often more engaged in the lecture and spend more time critically

Handwriting notes also lets you be more creative with the organization.

You can make quick sketches or diagrams, draw arrows to connect ideas, and write comments

As we’ve said before on this channel, sometimes the best learning is messy.

Handwriting your notes provides fewer restraints and less structure, allowing you to write

your notes in a way that makes sense to you.

In contrast, the biggest advantage to typing your notes is speed.

Whereas the average person writes at a speed of about 20 words per minute, the average

person can type at a speed of 40 words per minute with some people exceeding 100-150

That’s anywhere from 2 to 8 times the speed of writing notes by hand.

For this reason, simply switching to typing your notes can save you a substantial amount

This speed does come with some downsides, however.

Typing quickly comes with the risk of mindlessly copying notes verbatim rather than paying

attention to the content, processing the information, and summarizing it into more concise notes.

In addition to handwriting and typing your notes, there are hybrid forms of note-taking

such as writing your notes on a tablet or handwriting your notes on slides.

These strategies have many of the benefits of both handwriting and typing your notes;

however, they also have their own downsides.

On the one hand, you gain the benefits of physically writing your notes and having to

think more critically about what you write.

On the other hand, because much of the information is already present on the slides, you may

be more likely to get distracted and lose interest.

Which note-taking strategy you choose will depend on a few factors.

For instance, if you type substantially faster than you write, it may be a good idea to type

your notes and use the time you save to do more active methods of studying.

But if you type almost as slowly as you write, it may be more beneficial to handwrite your

notes as it may help you retain information better in the long term given the more active

mental processing required for writing over typing.

The note-taking strategy you should use will also depend on your professor.

If you have an instructor that goes through their notes quickly without giving you time

to write things down, typing your notes may be more effective.

If you’re taking a class that is more concept-heavy and moves at a slower pace, writing notes

may allow you to better organize the information in a way that lets you see the big picture

and understand those concepts at a deeper level.

Another factor to consider is whether you’re attending lectures in person or virtually.

The time spent at in-person lectures is fixed, meaning your goal should be to cram the most

amount of learning into that period of time.

In contrast, your time spent going through virtual lectures is not fixed, meaning you

can go through them at 1.5 or 2x speed and spend the remainder of your time using active

This brings me to the sponsor of today’s video: Slid.

Slid is a note-taking app available for your browser, desktop, and mobile device that allows

you to seamlessly take notes while watching videos or lectures.

It’s a great tool for students who attend online classes or enjoy reviewing content

The process of taking notes from videos has always been tedious.

You have to open a word processing app, pause the video, take a screenshot, paste it into

With Slid, you can easily take screenshot notes while watching online lectures or videos

Slid also makes it easy to mark and annotate the images giving you the benefits of both

And every screenshot is automatically time-stamped, allowing you to easily review sections of

All of your notes are safely managed by Slid so that you can review them from anywhere.

Whether you’re at your desktop or on the go, Slid’s mobile app is clear and easy

And if you want to share your notes with a friend or classmate, Slid also makes it easy

to share the link to the notes and the original video.

To download Slid and start optimizing your online note-taking, check out the link in

Thank you to Slid for sponsoring this video.

Now that we’ve covered how to decide if you should write or type your notes, let’s

discuss the different note-taking methods.