Note Taking

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My best time at school was the years when I only listened and absorbed information presented on classes. Later at the Uni I had to learn how to "study", how to take notes. There were a transitional period during high school in which we took notes by dictation. It's true that taking notes and absorbing information at the same time is very hard to me. I also noticed that I usually need more time and effort to understand something, but when I do, I do it better then others, ultimately understanding deeper the subject.

Modern education is superficial in some ways. The real understanding of the subjects to what the education system nominally aims at is missed somewhere. If I was to design the system I would carefully make sure that every new knowledge has its base to build upon, and understanding of the ideas and how things work would be always preferred to factual/lexical knowledge. For example, when you describe a theory of motivation like the Maslow pyramid, understanding the logic behind it would be more rewarded than to simply drawing it with its proper contents.

I can't take notes to save my life! When I try to I end up just feeling like a court reporter or something, I write down what the professor says but don't actually comprehend it at all. Generally after about 5-10 minutes of trying to take notes I either resort to scribbling, writing computer code, or doing math and just kind of get lost in my own world. My notebooks from every semester are quite funny to look at, they start out very neat and verbatim and by a week or two its just full of scribbles and code and nonsense.

To get anything out of lecture I usually just put away my paper and pen and try to listen. I do most of my learning just through reading the text book or just kind of self-studying a subject.

I think I really do best in subjects where I actually have to do something, like math or science where there are problems to explore. When it comes to something like literature I'm feel stuck because there isn't a tangible way to explore the material.

This all reads so familiar to me, too. I've found this page looking for tips on note-taking when you have autism. Seems clear that there is some link between my struggle to take notes and ASD.

I feel that learning things by listening works really well for me, but my experience with undergraduate courses teaches me caution. It's quite impossible to learn subjects of which the professor demands knowledge of content only said in class, even when I've been in these classes. First thing I try to acertain is whether the material is only given through the lecture, or also available elsewhere. And then I try to take notes necessary to pay attention, like questions I have or interesting points - to my own feeling.

But my struggle is mainly where the professor assumes that taking full notes on the lectures is necessary. It never came to my mind to ask such a professor how he would assume this arduous task can be completed exactly... Some can be even chaotic in their way of teaching. And then they regard it as a gift to put numbers on the slides to use as references in our notes. Maybe they want to prepare us for the chaotic nature of professional lecture's and readings at conferences? Haha!

I would really thank heavens if I had a way, a practicable way, to take full lecture notes. Something that gives me an overview of all that's been said. But I end up making my notes chaotic. Especially if the lecturer is doing it chaos-style. I'm not sure if doing a chaotic lecture isn't considered a bad lecture. Or, maybe I am. You just can tell your professor that so easily, can you?

Anyway, thanks for the recognizable stories, I'll keep looking for a viable system of note-taking that's autism-proof to my brain and I'll let you guys know if I do

I've never been able to take good notes. I can, however, copy diagrams (as in physics, chemistry) and models into a notebook, and write down key concepts or equations.

Since recording lectures is possible (smartphone) why not do that, and replay it later at your own pace? You could write down salient points then.

Yes. God, it's a struggle. How am I supposed to know what details to leave out? I can't write fast enough, and it's hard to write when you have to listen to the teacher talk at the same time. Even if I write something down, I can't absorb it.
...Which is why I used all my note paper for doodling. Yep, I don't regret transferring to an online school.