Thread: How intelligent do you think you are?

Originally Posted by Dianeva

I can't concentrate on writing down the notes, comprehending the notes, and listening to the teacher at the same time. I have to choose one. Other students don't seem to have as much of a problem with this (although I'm not sure, since I haven't talked to anyone about this before).

Bear in mind that most people are full of shit.

There were some guys in my sixth form who always made sure to copy down exactly what was on the board word for word and line for line, listen to the teacher attentively, etcetera, and always tried to project academic confidence. But whenever I talked to these people about whatever we were learning about, they literally had no clue. They could refer to words in their notes and recite the sentences, but really they had no conceptual grasp of what the teacher was talking about, or really any thorough understanding of anything in the subject.

I never took notes because we had textbooks that covered exactly what we covered in lessons, so it was utterly pointless. I just sat and listened and tried to understand, and whenever something came up where it conflicted with something else or anything, I'd ask about it. The annoying thing was my teachers would get pissy at me for not taking notes (so I ended up just doodling on some paper to look busy; I never worked out why they spent so much money buying the textbooks in the first place), and my school reports would usually say something about my being lackluster or whatever, basically for not asking dumbass, obvious questions every five minutes so as to appear knowledgeable. Irritatingly no matter how many exams I aced, especially in biology, I'd still be the lackluster guy, whilst the loudmouth projectors were still the future dazzling doctors who'd just had a bad day on that test (and every other).

Unfortunately now I'm at uni you kinda have to take notes because there isn't a single book, and photocopying your friends' notes afterwards just makes you look like a bit of a jerk somehow. Every now and then you'll get a pro lecturer who hands out printed lecture notes, but you're right, the rest of the time it is a distraction.