Do professors frown upon students who don't take notes?

Question

I am a math student and never take notes in class. I feel like I am offending the professors by not taking notes. In general, do professors like students to be "active" during class? I have never learned much by taking notes.

I see other graduate students furiously taking notes...and then I am afraid that professors may write that I am lazy in recommendation letters. So maybe I should just takes notes?

Answer 1

Sometimes I wish students would stop taking notes and actually think about what I'm saying. I provide the lecture notes before/after class anyway...

Answer 2

I am afraid that professors may write that I am lazy in recommendation letters.

I can assure you that there is no reason to be afraid of that. That is just not something that would ever get written in a letter. Not taking notes might lead to a poor first impression, but it is your knowledge of the subject (something like your grade, but not exactly) that influences letters.

When I am teaching, I don't pay attention to if people are taking notes or not. I do pay attention to if students are paying attention. As long as you can remember the things you need to remember, then you do not need to write them down.

Answer 3

Use whatever study habits you need to succeed. Your performance on assessments will make more of an impression than how you absorb the material. If you can perform well without notetaking and your professor recognizes it, he/she will more likely be very impressed with you.

Answer 4

I'm a math professor. (I have taught at Stanford and several other universities.)

I prefer that my students do not take notes during my lectures. Before the lecture, browse through the relevant chapter of the text book. During the lecture, focus on what your professor says. Taking notes will just distract you, and make it harder for you to follow the lecture. After the lecture, read the textbook carefully. It is much more well written than any notes would be.

Answer 5

For very standard, orthodox material based on a textbook, it is reasonable to not take notes and do as much engaged, active thinking-or-questioning during a lecture. One should be alert to insights (hopefully!) from the person in the front of the room, and from others, so a bit of note-writing about the peripheral things is to be expected.

For advanced courses, and for seminars based only loosely on publicly-available material, or actually intended to be _explications_of_ otherwise-opaque material, the task is to both take as many notes as possible (even if/when printed material is provided), and think as much as remaining resources allow, because without notes the words spoken and written will mostly vanish. Here I overlook the possibility that one's memory is so excellent and so practiced that one truly can perfectly remember things one does not understand. The latter possibility is very important to cultivate, but this question wouldn't have arisen at all if that were already in reach.

And, yes, in advanced courses and seminars, although I've gotten over the surprise, I am baffled at the claim that people can't usefully take notes. The usual claim is that by not taking notes they think about the material in real time. This would be great if it were usefully true, but I find that my students do not have total recall... so that mostly they have neither notes nor recollection.

Perhaps the main practical trick to learn is to be able to write, very fast, without looking at the paper, and be able to "copy" the visual layout of the blackboard (whiteboard, whatever) without necessarily stopping listening to the audio. Yes, this does require a lot of effort, but, hopefully, it gains something.

Answer 6

One of my professors forbid to take notes during the lecture, unless it helps you learn and memorize during the lecture. The slides were available online.