Fair enough. We all learn differently. For me, having printed lecture notes meant I could listen (imperfectly!) in lectures rather than focusing on copying. It

Fair enough. We all learn differently. For me, having printed lecture notes meant I could listen (imperfectly!) in lectures rather than focusing on copying. It was a revelation after years of exhausting lectures doing nothing but writing. I now realise that sounds a bit like a contradiction. I said I could copy on autopilot but also I had to focus on it. I suppose it was more like the second one: I was so focused on copying verbatim (as furiously as I could as there was barely time to do it before it was rubbed out!) that I didn't have a chance to think about the content. > > Or summarising notes in your words. > Which is what you do, if you take down notes. I certainly disagree with this. No one I knew was rephrasing the lecturer's notes in their own terms. There was no time for that. That is something you'd have to do in your own time afterwards, at a much slower pace. > > but there were no typed notes to start with so it was just out of necessity > The necessity was created by the teachers in order to get the students to learn. I assure you, the main reason those maths lecturers didn't spend countless hours typing up their handwritten notes in LaTeX was not the best interests of the students!