[NABS-L] College note taking, and studying

[Terri Stimmel]

Hello everyone,


I hope this message finds you well.

I just have a few questions, and I hope someone with much more 
experience, can possibly give me some answers.


So, I am now in my third semester, at my local community college. I live 
in the state of Missouri, near Saint Louis. I am a totally blind 
student, and the college does not have much experience working with 
people who are blind. I am also an older student. So of course this can 
present it's own issues. Not for the college really. But for me, and 
just more in general.


My first two semesters had some struggles. Although, overall things 
haven't been too bad.

However, there are some pretty big issues for me, and I just do not know 
quite what to do. Once I finish up here at this community college, I do 
plan to go on to get my bachelors degree. Then, if things are still 
going well for me, I will attempt to get my masters degree. I was 
planning to go into social work. But now, I am leaning more toward 
psychology. We will just see how it all plays out.


So, for those of you who have attended college, or who are attending 
college now, how did you go about taking notes?

I never learned how to do such a thing in middle school, or high school. 
I didn't even really learn how to write a paper. So now, this is a huge 
issue for me.

Three, out of my four classes, are pretty writing intensive.


My college is getting away from having others take notes for you. They 
are recommending this App to use called, Jamworks. I do not know if I 
have spelled this correctly, or not. But it is basically a program that 
will listen, and turn the lecture into notes.


That is one option. The other option I have is that I can record my 
classes. Then go back and listen to them, and then make my own notes 
this way.


However, I do not know how such a thing is even practical. There just 
isn't enough time in the day to do this, along with everything else. 
When I tried to politely explain this to the lady at the accessibility 
resource office, she told me that on the weekends, she listens to 
recordings of her meetings, and takes notes on them.


However, everything I do takes me so much longer, than it seems to for 
most sighted people. Studying is a struggle for me as well, because in 
some ways I just do not know how to study.


So, how do you all handle taking notes?

What are some ways that work best for you?

And, what do you find challenging to keep up with?


Also, might anyone here have some study tips, or habits, they could share?


Any help would be very much appreciated. I really want to do my very 
best to make B's in my classes, if at all possible. I know in the spring 
semester, a couple of my classes are going to be more difficult. I will 
most likely be taking a biology class. At some point, I still have to 
try and take the math placement test. So that I can then figure out 
where I might land, regarding math. I will most likely have to take 
either a beginning algebra class, or, a statistics class.


I have a laptop, running Jaws, that I use at school, and at home, for 
school stuff. I also have a Focus 40 Braille display, and, a Braille 
embosser.


Any thoughts, or suggestions are very much appreciated.


Thank you,


Terri