All of your lectures will be accompanied by PowerPoint or pdf slides that you can access from Queen’s Online. These are going to form the basis of your notes - here are a few things to consider when deciding whether you want to print the slides off or go paperless. Bear in mind that the volume of information in the medicine course is much bigger than either school or most undergraduate courses.

"At the start, I switched back to paper and started printing the lectures out, but realised it would be very expensive to keep this up and also heavy to carry around, so went completely digital."
- second year medical student

	Pros	Cons
Taking notes electronically	Lighter to carry around Saves money Saves paper: the more environmentally friendly option Notes are easier to store and organise Can go back and insert extra information Notes are made more quickly	Requires a certain level of digital skill Making diagrams and mind maps needs proficiency with the right software
Taking notes with paper & pen	Easier to make diagrams and mind maps	More expensive: ongoing expenses for paper and stationery Harms the environment Notes take up a lot of physical space and are more difficult to organise Static: difficult to insert supplementary information Written notes take longer to create Heavy to carry around

"Before I came to university, I always handwrote my notes in school, but I think that just doesn't work at university, because its too much content. During my first semester, I didn't know that, and continued handwriting my notes - I would listen to a lecture, make a mind map and then go home and read that and make notes, but it just wasn’t working and I wasted a whole semester. It is better to use your computer from the start. When you come to university, forget pen and paper – pen and paper doesn't work."
- second year medical student

If you have decided to go digital, you now have to consider what device is going to best suit your learning and note-taking style. Bear in mind that the techniques you will need in university are quite different from what you are used to using in school, so check out the Studying at University tab for some ideas to get you started. However, don't stress if you cannot figure what works best for you right away - it is a process everyone goes through during the first few months of university, and it is by trying a few different styles that you find the one you like most. We also encourage you to talk to your peers - this is the best way to get new ideas and share your own insights, as well as make friends.

"Don't be afraid to find your style of how you want to tackle lectures. I remember a lot of people started with one style, but then realised it was totally useless and changed to a different style."
- second year medical student

Once you have thought about how you are going to be making your notes, you should consider which device will be the most suitable. This table is a comparison between a tablet and a laptop using the insights of students who have finished years 2 and 3 at Queen's.

	Tablet	Laptop
Portability	Smaller size and weight makes it more easy to carry around and use in uncomfortable conditions e.g. small tutorial rooms, dissection (the classes have no sitting space)	Laptops vary in size, and some models would fit in the bag you use daily, but generally they are bigger and more heavy than tablets
Price	Have to compare based on models	Have to compare based on models
Battery life	10-15 h, depending on the device and its age, but generally can last a day at lectures without continuous charging	2-4 h, depending on the device and its age, but need to carry charger with you for longer days, so more suited for studying outside of lectures
Typing	Need to purchase a keyboard if you don't want to type on the screen. Additionally, some keyboards (e.g. Bluetooth operated ones) have a finite battery life	Keyboard already there
Storage*	Generally less	Generally more
Creating utility**	Less convenient for making presentations, writing essays etc due to limited creating and navigating options. Also, the notes you make will be more static than on a laptop – more difficult to change structure, format etc.	More creating and navigational options (e.g. being able to open multiple tabs next to each other) makes creating presentations and writing essays more efficient. Also, you can change the structure and format of your notes as you go along
Making notes	Can write/make text boxes directly on slides more efficiently than with a laptop. Also, touchscreen allows faster navigating than with a trackpad/mouse. Additionally, the Notability app (see section below) has become quite popular among students recently due to its efficiency in taking notes (more information below). However, to make full use of the touchscreen, need to purchase a stylus.	Good for people who like to type their notes e.g. in a Word document or in the “notes” section under lecture slides. However, consider that note typing requires you to be quick at typing and able to listen and type at the same time

*Essentially, this becomes irrelevant if you use Cloud storage - within the free Office365 package at Queen’s, you get 1 Terabyte of free storage on OneDrive. You can find more information here.

** When it comes to creating utility, laptops are more versatile than tablets. However, bear in mind that the same utilities are available on the laptop and desktop facilities provided for free at QUB libraries.

Buying an electronic device is a huge investment. You want it to be of a good quality, so that it can last you until the end of your degree, and possibly further - this is something to consider when choosing the brand of your device. Here are a few product review sites to give you an idea of what is avaiable currently and the differences between them. Note this is not an exhaustive list there are many more review websites available.

Use this blank template (Word file) along with the sites for you to compare the key points about products you are interested in.

Laptops	Tablets
Cnet	Cnet
Trusted Reviews	Trusted Reviews
Techadvisor	Techadvisor