I used digital notetaking this year and here's my experience:
1. Your writing will be much slower.
MUCH slower online than it is on paper, so bear that in mind. So no, I did not use notability for writing essays because the 'feel' of it was different. But this is different for everyone.
2. You still need to organise physical handouts provided by your teachers.
While you can scan physical handouts and transfer it onto Notability or whatever app, it is troublesome and you might find that keeping hard copies are a better option in this manner. Teachers might not also be too fond of this idea as I found. In the end, you might do a hybrid of digital and traditional note-taking.
3. Eye fatigue
The headaches were often unbearable. Especially on those days where I used my iPad for hours on end, so bear this in mind too.
A couple of suggestions:
- keep your notes succinct. I wrote biology and psychology notes on iPad, which I could condense and make diagrams for. Avoid unnecessary note-taking as you will find that you will barely look over them. The whole premise of active recall is to be able to recall information without aid, and so simply rereading notes defeats its purpose.
- use notability for doing practice exams/tests.
This was perhaps the BEST use throughout the year. I didn't use it to write notes per se, I used it for practice exams/tests. Instead of a buttload of papers stacked in my room, I only had an iPad which was awesome in terms of organisation. I would simply upload the exam to notability and start writing away.
- use notion to make your own questions
I used notion to list down ALL questions regarding the topic in question. I went through them answering them on the iPad. For revision or study, I went through the questions, picking out the ones I didn't get and went from there. It's a great method for active recall
If you have any questions or want any more advice on digital note taking or active recall, let me know