• Congratulations to the Class of 2024 on your results!
    Let us know how you went here
    Got a question about your uni preferences? Ask us here

Note taking for bio and geo (1 Viewer)

Gryffindor

Member
Joined
Jul 3, 2021
Messages
48
Gender
Female
HSC
2022
Are typing or hand writing notes generally more suitable for biology and geography? Are there a lot of biological/geographical diagrams required in year 12 content, therefore making hand written easier or would it be fine either way?
 

totally_screwed

🇵🇸
Joined
Aug 17, 2020
Messages
1,607
Location
🇵🇸
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
2020
idk about geography, but I would recommend typing notes for biology. there is way too much content to make sense of across all 4 modules, hand writing your notes would be inefficient and ineffective.

for typed notes, you can also go back and add things as you learn, there's sometimes overlap between modules and when you type notes you factor this in without messing up your existing notes. you can also reorganise stuff and as someone mentioned in the other thread, you can cmd/ctrl+F. makes it so much easier to navigate many pages of notes to find an exact concept you're looking for.

there are indeed* many key diagrams in biology like the pregnancy reproduction things, DNA replication, immune system, mitosis meiosis etc. if you type your notes you can just copy paste a relevant diagram into your notes OR you can hand draw these diagrams on paper/tablet, and add them to your notes. tldr I just don't recommend hand writing your notes for bio, it's too content heavy
 

Gryffindor

Member
Joined
Jul 3, 2021
Messages
48
Gender
Female
HSC
2022
idk about geography, but I would recommend typing notes for biology. there is way too much content to make sense of across all 4 modules, hand writing your notes would be inefficient and ineffective.

for typed notes, you can also go back and add things as you learn, there's sometimes overlap between modules and when you type notes you factor this in without messing up your existing notes. you can also reorganise stuff and as someone mentioned in the other thread, you can cmd/ctrl+F. makes it so much easier to navigate many pages of notes to find an exact concept you're looking for.

there are indeed* many key diagrams in biology like the pregnancy reproduction things, DNA replication, immune system, mitosis meiosis etc. if you type your notes you can just copy paste a relevant diagram into your notes OR you can hand draw these diagrams on paper/tablet, and add them to your notes. tldr I just don't recommend hand writing your notes for bio, it's too content heavy
How was I not aware of ctrl+F?!

But yeah, I’ve heard biology is really content heavy so I was hoping typing would save some time and I like the idea of being able to effortlessly edit and add to notes. I noticed module overlaps in prelim biology (especially with module 3 and 4) and so I can definitely see that typing would better accomodate to that in HSC bio.

I’m sure the same can apply to geo in terms of adding drawn graphs and the likes into notes.

Thank you for your help!
 

Gryffindor

Member
Joined
Jul 3, 2021
Messages
48
Gender
Female
HSC
2022
Biology?
passively typing notes off the textbook is a waste of time.

I can lend you my study method in DMs if you like
Hahah I meant typing notes from class and maybe editing alongside a text book. I definitely agree that solely relying on a textbook hinders active learning.

And yes, if you have any study methods, my DMs are open. Thank you!!
 
Joined
Sep 25, 2021
Messages
1
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
N/A
Are typing or hand writing notes generally more suitable for biology and geography? Are there a lot of biological/geographical diagrams required in year 12 content, therefore making hand written easier or would it be fine either way?
In terms of geography, I typed up all of my notes initially and then hand wrote the my summary notes with the key points that I wanted to remember.
there aren't TOO many geographical diagrams required in year 12 - i feel like there's more diagrams in year 11 :)

doing this really helped me to complete my class notes quickly and then have enough time to write out summary notes!
 

AlienWithLiberty610

New Member
Joined
Jul 9, 2021
Messages
14
Gender
Female
HSC
2023
Hello! I finished the prelim bio course last term and have moved onto the Yr 12 course this term.

I asked my biology teacher this exact question and she got really offended when I mentioned typing notes. Her exact words: “The HSC is a 3 and a half hour written exam. You need to get used to writing.”

I can’t really say how many diagrams there are in the course as I have recently just started it, but I have drawn two of them so far in the two days I’ve had the class.

Ultimate decision is yours though because I don’t think it matters too much as long as you have notes down somewhere.
 

hiiitsme

Active Member
Joined
Mar 18, 2020
Messages
147
Gender
Male
HSC
2021
Definetly preference but for both I would strongly recommend typing, then (using the extra time you gained typing) do a past question and if you are into the whole 'make-my-notes-look-like-a-traffic-cone' thing then print and highlight when done.

Try and make geo overlap as much as possible with e.gs and stats all over. Bio should be completely theory with examples for each dp and the odd graph/diagram
 

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 0, Guests: 1)

Top