What is the best notebook for a University Student?

Why is it so hard to pick a notebook for taking notes? Is it the amount of options students have? Is it simply procrastination? Maybe by fixatiing on the notebook we can avoid doing work, until we find the “perfect” notebook.

It could be a combination of those options. But in this post I want evaluate the pros and cons of different notebooks. My thesis is basically that there is no “perfect” notebook and different options are suitable for different situations. Basically, use a hammer for nails but use a screwdriver for nails.

My main use-cases are in classroom lectures, online zoom meetings and personal note taking.

I will be evaluating half-a-dozen notebooks. Starting with Moleskine’s option, a traditional yellow legal pad, a UBC spiral notebook and finally a five-star notebook.

The Moleskine notebook has a nice form factor. It is not too big and can be taken anywhere. In class, I never felt like I was needing space to write notes. I like that I can take notes on the bus potentially. The lines are pretty condensed so you can get down a surprisingly amount of notes down-even though I take notes using dashes.

Onto the negatives. The finite space makes it so that it is not possible to finish a course with one notebook. You’ll eventually fill the notebook up. This makes it hard to study from cause I always had the feeling that I was missing something. With a spiral notebook, I can rip out the pages and put all my notes in a binder. All my notes would be in one place. Also because the book is bound, altering the location of notes is impossible. Yes I could rip them out, because the pages are perforated, but I’ve yet to find a good mini binder I could store the notes. Perhaps if Moleskine made a small binder then it could this issue. Also the cost is high. The notebooks are premium and are not disposable like a legal pad, so every page counts. I only used my the notebooks for lecture notes and not assignments. But with a legal pad I could use for notes or assignments. Also three-quatrers into the semester I filled up most of the notebooks for each class… Digitizing the notes as well is not ideal. The form factor and the fact that it is a book makes it hard to scan. But taking photos of the notes with a phone or camera works fine.

And despite not being able to search my notes like I could on a computer I was able to find answers for my open book tests decently.

I would recommend the Moleskine books for arts courses. For History courses they were good. I draw pictures and the paper is good, especially with a fountain pen. However, for math courses the notebook struggled. The form factor is too small and practice questions or formulas often got cut off. I needed to buy a larger form factor Moleskine book for my Math course. In summary, Moleskine is great for arts courses.

Next is the legal pad. As a lefty, writing on a legal pad is great. No need to worry about bumping my hand on the sprials. Also just quickly writing stuff down is so convenient. No need to open up a book. On the moleksine sometimes the book is closes and it is hard to write. Legal pad just requires the pen because the canvas is exposed.

One disavantage is not being to write on the backside of the page naturally. Though you could rip the page out and write on the back, it is less than convinent. So you are kind of wasting paper and binder space by not being able to write on the back. Also the yellow colour is not for everyone. I defiantly felt more inclined to make my note prettier in the Moleskine book rather than the Legal pad. I drew more pictures as well and used highlighters. I felt like I was creating something with the Moleskine book but the legal pad feels disposable. The line spacing is also too long limiting the amount you can write. Also for some reason on a fountain pen, writing is courser. It feels like I am scratching something. But it’s ease of use makes it a great contender.

I would not recommend the legal pad for lecture notes as they are not aestically appealing enough to me. I prefer Moleskine. But I just noticed that grid paper legal pads exist and the paper quality is good and line spacing is good. For getting quick notes down it is fantastic. Taking notes for books is great as well. For example, I have a book and then I see something interesting, I jot it down. The legal pad canvas being exposed makes it easy to do both. Whereas in a Moleskine you have to keep the page open and it might close, it is a hassle. So basically anytime you are doing something casual or busting out a rough draft the legal pad is great. Ideas flow great as well. I’ve done a lot of first drafts on legal pads because you can keep writing and writing. Writing just flows.

You can also rip out the pages and then put them in a binder. But as mentioned before, not being to write on the backside makes it so binders fill up faster and less efficiently.

Now onto the spiral notebook. I have two options today, because there are countless spiral notebooks on the market. First is a notebook from the UBCO bookstore and then I’ll talk about the Fivestar notebook. The UBCO is nothing too remarkable but it has a nice cover and the pages are perforated. Meaning that the pages come out nicely for your binder. Unlike other notebooks where you get a bunch of paper scraps shreads as well. Another benefit of the notebook is its small spirals. I barely notice them when I am writing. The Fivestar notebook is one that most Canadian kids would have used in high school. It is a brand found in pretty much every stationary store. The biggest gripe I have with them is the large spirals. They make writing a chore. But they are common so replacing your notebook is an ease. They can be nicely organized as well-I like uniformity so that is a decent pro. The paper quality is decent enough on both notebooks but I always feel like the notes are too big for class notes. For arts courses it feels like not so good to leave so much space on the right empty. Because usually I write notes like this:

George Washington
First president
Fought in Revolutionary War
etc.

So, all the space to the right is left empty, this is not a problem with the moleskine book. But being able to take out pages and re-organize stuff is a major plus. But that is not so necessary for lecture notes. You kinda want them in chornological order. But other stuff like drafts and research and readings are suitable for legal pads or the notebooks.

I think the Moleskine book really excel for lecture notes because I like giving more to lecture notes. University lectures are special in a way… The professor is talking and we pay a lot for the courses so why not take care when taking notes? I think some will argue that notes do not really matter but I kinda like making my lecture notes nice. But other stuff I like to get my hands dirty. I like being able to easily write notes about a class reading on a legal pad. I like doing exercises on a notebook and not worry about consuming too many pages. So, there is not really one “best” notebook. I think each has it’s strengths and applications.