okay guys, ah, here we go, okay, let's go
hello! it's seo from tbhstudying and today, i'm here to talk about
how i take notes on my ipad
this has been a pretty highly requested video and i just thought i'd make a
quick video about it before my next class starts in like,
20 minutes-ish. let's see how this goes
let's start off with the materials that we'll be using today in this video
i have an iPad pro 11 with a speck case
and i have a matte screen protector,
the second-generation Apple pencil and a case that my roommate gave
me for my birthday. i will leave all the things i use linked
in the description down below if you're interested so do not worry about that
the apps i use for note-taking are goodnotes 5 and procreate for calligraphy
i specifically use goodnotes mostly because i prefer the layout
of goodnotes a lot more than notability. my other roommate uses notability and
another friend of mine uses goodnotes and after looking at the two, i just like
the aesthetic appearance of goodnotes better than notability. i haven't used
notability personally so i can't really compare and contrast the two apps but
goodnotes 5 is what i use. procreate is not necessary; it's just what i use to make
calligraphy titles which is something super extra so you don't need to use that
i mean, i guess you could include google drive as part of the apps that i
use for notes because i use google drive as my backup storage. goodnotes gives
you an option to back up either to iCloud or to google drive and i just
use google drive because 1. i don't really use a lot of other Apple products aside
from my iPad for school and 2. i prefer using Google Drive for everything else
for my school stuff so i just chose to back up there so that is part of the
apps i use but not something that is super integral to this tutorial right now.
alright, so let me walk you through a basic step of how i take notes
i'm going to be using my biology notes as an example
first off, the pen settings that i use are the ball pen in 0.5 and then the highlighter
setting that i primarily use is 4.6 mm. the colors that i
typically use are black and then i custom-made colors for myself so I just
picked out a sort of navy blue color and a sort of dark red color
i prefer sort of like these more muted tones sort of to mimic the same vibe of
the vintage sarasa zebra clip pens give me but on an iPad. i use the A4 size
grid template that goodnotes gives me [no, i don't, i use letter-sized]
alright so if we go to the very beginning of my notes
i start off with my cover and i write the title of my
class that I'm taking notes for on the very cover. this calligraphy header
was written in procreate and then saved as a png file so i could overlay it on
top of my cover. this is super unnecessary, you could do
the same thing, goodnotes does have a brush pen function within the app itself
but i personally hate that because i think it's disgusting so i don't like
using it and then we move on to a title page for my unit notes. i prefer having a
separate title paper in the start of every new unit or the start of every new
chapter because when i go to the overview page, i can easily find where my
next unit begins. so i can click over to let's say, unit 1 or unit 2 easily
another way you can get around this is by going to your overview page, clicking
on outlines, and actually labeling each of your notes sections. that's a little
bit too much work for me. i personally just like using the overview of the
thumbnails and just looking at it and visually seeing what's there immediately
rather than, i don't know, manually inputting titles for my outlines and
things like that, but if that works better for you, that works better for you
after that we move on to the actual notes. i prefer to structure my notes in
two columns and i achieved this by using my magnification
box and to the far left, there's this little button where you can adjust the
tab and where the magnification box starts the next time you go to the next
line. i sort of eyeball it and split the page in half and on the right side is
where i will write my lecture notes and i'll just go in, doo doo doo doo doo, take
my usual notes. i use a bullet point system so just bullet points or main
points, dashes for sub-points and then arrows for sub-sub-points. just a
typical outline bullet point method. i'll just write it all down on one column and
then after class is over, either that same day or the next day, basically as
soon as possible, i will go over to the blank left side
and in a different color, add additional information from the powerpoints, from
handouts, from the textbook, from the readings that i didn't either have time
to put down or i want to incorporate into my notes. i found out that doing it
this way is a lot more convenient for me personally because professors speak very
quickly and even if i use a lot of abbreviations or write as quickly as
possible, it's not possible for me to get down on all the information i need in
one go, so having extra space and having that extra column towards the left
allows me to have that room to sort of, you know, add in information, add in
pictures, add an extra notes as i need. when i was doing this on paper, i
achieved the same effect by putting post-it's everywhere but here on
an iPad, i can't really do that so having just a blank column is much easier for
me. typically I will write the bulk of my
notes in black and have the additional notes written in a different color.
that way, i can differentiate what i wrote down in lecture versus what i wrote at
afterwards and it's just visually easier for me to just have those two different
colors for different things. i will also take screenshots or draw diagrams in
different colors to the side of my notes as well and i will also go in and do all
of my highlighting at this point. i typically stick with one main color for
my vocab and another color for any important
information. the colors that i pick are fairly arbitrary. i picked green and
yellow because 1. that was what i already had default into my highlighter
settings and 2. green is sort of a biology color for me personally but that
is how i ended up doing it. i will say i also put in pictures of dogs and pandas
and drawings into my notes during lecture because I get bored sometimes
but uh, that is a me thing, you don't have to do that,
i do it when i'm bored and then another thing is the size of the
template that you use does change the settings of your pen. i found that
when i changed my paper size tosomething else like A3 or A5 or
maybe like A2, then my pen settings aren't as, i guess, convenient for me
they're not as compatible so depending on the size of the template you use, your
pen settings will probably have to change and adjust and then another thing
that i've also noticed, i prefer having a magnification box that's very zoomed in
that way, i can make sort of bigger gestures with my Apple pencil when i
write but still have it show up as normal typed on the actual template itself
some people prefer bigger magnification
boxes while some people prefer even smaller ones and the one i have right
now but i prefer to really zoom in and really get in there when i write and i
think that's all i really have to say about taking notes on the iPad whew
and just to really hammer the point home, here is an overview of everything that i've
just talked about so i will set up the lecture notes by writing the name or the
number of the lecture and i'll write the date that the lecture was on. after
that, i'll use a highlighter to sort of delineate the title. this way when i go
into the outline mode of goodnotes, i can clearly see what page a new lecture
starts out on. i will change up the color depending on the unit. so for example,
unit one would be green, unit two would be yellow
unit three would be red. the colors are arbitrary but having that color per unit
sort of helps define which page is for what unit
clearly and easily when you look at the thumbnail section of the overview. i know
this probably doesn't make sense but if you're on goodnotes then you know.
after that, i'll just use a normal bullet point method for the main body of my notes so
a bullet point would be for the main point, a dash would be for secondary
information and arrows would be for tertiary information. it's the same
bullet point system that i've talked about loads and loads of times on my
channel. it's the bullet point method and the note-taking methods that i'm most
comfortable with and it's just what i prefer. if you go to my old note-taking
tutorials, you'll probably see a more in-depth explanation of what the system
is but this is just a system that works best for me. after that, i will usually
have some important points, maybe some vocabulary
i don't bother highlighting these during lecture itself because i'm so busy
writing down what my professor is saying at the time so i will do that after
class and not during lecture, but that is how i do it. just the vocab word, a long dash,
and then the definition and again maybe, there's some sort of important
information, whatever, you know, so i will highlight the really really important
bits and the vocabulary and as i mentioned before, i will highlight them
in two different colors. vocabulary will be in one color and then the main point
will be on the other. after the lecture is over i will take a
different color and go to the left column of my notes. on that side i
will write down anything that i missed, any additional information that i want
to add from the reading or from the powerpoints or from office hours
whatever it might be, that is where additional information goes and again
i write it in a different color so that i can clearly see what was from the
actual lecture and what was added later on.
sometimes i will go in maybe make some additions but again
all of them will be in the different color and here
you see me using the two different colors for highlighting in terms of
vocabulary and important points and here you'll see me add in a picture. it's a
picture of a cute panda, it doesn't really have any relevance but
let's say that was a screenshot of an important graph or a diagram and i will
go in and add additional information then. so that's a quick overview of how i
make notes on goodnotes on my iPad and hopefully this visual demo in addition
to the explanation that i gave before will make it even more clear in case my
explanations aren't clear enough so hopefully that helps, we'll see
and then finally people have asked me whether or not an iPad is worth it for
note-taking. i've been using the iPad for about four months now and compared to
writing on paper, i just don't know if note-taking on an
iPad really is for me. i personally think that if you are interested in going
digital for note-taking, then just a regular iPad like the 7th generation
iPad with the Apple pencil is perfectly adequate for your needs. if you
are an art student or someone who needs to use heavier programs like, i think
some art students like using procreate and other people use certain apps that
are take up more storage and require more like juice and strength so i
think for students like that, you may want the iPad pro but if you're just
interested in taking notes alone, then i think a regular iPad is perfectly
adequate to suit your needs. i have a 256 gb iPad and so far i have only
used 17 gb for one and a half semesters' worth of notes so i think if
you regularly backup your notes to something else like iCloud or google
drive, then you could get away with using a 64 gb iPad but again if you are
someone who does a lot of art or has a lot of file sizes that are really big
then you may want to size up and get a 256. some people have asked me if i
prefer the 12.9 iPad or the 11 inch iPad. i have the 11
and i found that it's perfectly fine, i can still split-screen my iPad and
still be comfortable with the amount of space that i have on either side but
then again, i do have very small hands. if you are someone with very big hands or
if you want your screen to be bigger, the 12.9 may be a better option for you but
for now, the 11 inch is a perfectly convenient size for me and it fits well
into my backpack. i don't think an iPad will ever replace a laptop for me
because the iPad doesn't run all the programs that i need from a day-to-day
basis so for programs like microsoft word, excel, matlab, adobe photoshop,
premiere pro, things like that don't have a good app equivalent. i mean, i
guess i could get away with using google sheets and google docs but it's still
not the same kind of usability as a laptop has. for example, i can't install
the same excel software package that i need for my biology classes into google
sheets and the online version of excel kinda sucks so i can't use my iPad for
my science classes. i can't run matlab on this baby so that's a case where i still
need to use my laptop and i just find my laptop to be more convenient and more
usable so i wouldn't say my iPad is something that replaces my laptop. it's
gotten to the point where i feel like some things like math classes, chemistry
classes, things like that are just so much easier to do on paper. i've even
gone back to using my binders for chemistry
like, here we go, mostly because i found that it's so much easier to do problems
on paper versus trying to do them on here so yeah, i would say if you have the
money and you have the budget to afford an iPad and you want to actively
shift over to this, then go ahead, i'm not gonna stop you
but if you're just on the fence and or if you don't have the money for an iPad
i don't think you're missing out. i think paper is perfectly fine and even
from an environmental standpoint, there is no definitive evidence that shows
digital or paper is superior than the other so if you're torn between these
two for environmental reasons, i would say pick the one that fits in your
budget and your current lifestyle. yeah, those are my thoughts on the iPad. i will
continue to use my iPad mostly because this thing was so hella expensive and i
can't justify not using it. i'm not saying that the iPad is all bad, it's just....
it's just not a perfect solution or a perfect replacement for paper or for
your laptop, that's all i'm really saying
hope this helped and thank you so much for watching
and i will see you in the next video. bye!