Switched from typing my notes to writing them by hand in class and my grades went up
I always typed my notes in class because it was faster and I could get every word down. But my grades in bio and psych were stuck at C+ no matter how much I studied. My friend Jenna kept telling me to try writing notes by hand, and I finally did it in January for my psych class. Turns out I can't write as fast as I type, so I had to actually think about what mattered and put it in my own words. My first exam after that was a B+ and the next one was an A-. I think the slower pace made my brain hold onto stuff better. Has anyone else made this switch and seen a jump like that, or is it just me?
Slower really does help. Typing lets you be lazy because you just copy words without thinking. Handwriting forces your brain to chew on the material first, so you remember it later. There is actual research on this, people remember stuff better when they write it out by hand. Your brain has to decide what matters and how to say it short, and that process is where the learning happens. A jump from C+ to A- is big but it lines up with how memory works.