Best note taking app for class?

Perhaps Penultimate?

 

Note Shelf. It's got the pen fluidity of Penultimate combined with the close-up/zoomed writing mode of Notes Plus or Note Taker HD.

 

Notability for the iPad is the best IMO. It's $0.99 right now. You should look up a YouTube video for it. It convinced me.

 

I've been playing around with Notetaker HD, Penultimate, and Notes Plus. They all work well and I have yet to decide which I prefer. I don't think there is a clear cut winner in this segment. Which is best will be somewhat subjective depending on what features are important to you.

Regardless of which you choose, getting the most out of the app means practicing with it until your proficient. In the beginning writing with a capacitive stylus is more akin to taking notes with a Crayola then it is a pen or pencil.

 

In my experience the iPad simply cannot compete with pen and paper for taking notes. Handwriting on the device is cumbersome (since you either have to mess around with a zoom box or can only write a few short lines per page, even with a stylus), and the virtual keyboard is too slow and cannot be used without looking (if you are a touch typist).

That said, I sometimes use an app to make limited notes in presentations or meetings. So far, Notability works best for me. I usually take notes as outlines (bullett style), and that is very easy to do with Notability. It can also record audio and makes it easy to quickly insert simple hand drawn figures in the notes.

 

I've been using evernote with the on-screen keyboard and have no problems with it. I don't know about stylus compatibility but once you get used to it, it's just as quick as a laptop would be. I imagine it would be even more fluid with the bluetooth keyboard, but I haven't tried that yet...

 

Paper and pencil. Seriously. Can serious college note taking be done on an ipad? Yes. Is it the best way? Not quite yet, IMHO.

As nice as many apps are, there's still too much messing around required to get fine detail in notes and drawings with a capacitive screen vs using old fashioned pencil & paper. (though I recommend a decent 0.5mm mechanical pencil).

YMMV, and others likely have different opinions.

 

I suggest Pen and Paper

my Pen of choice is a PILOT G-2 0.7 Gel Pen..in various colors..
writes super smooth, solid colors, and stupidly cheap.

If you write a lot, and your fingers hurt.. get the
PILOT Dr. GRIP, and just insert the cheapy PILOT G-2 0.7 ink carts in them. Fantastic!

 

Agree with pen/pencil and paper.

It's very difficulty to write accurately and fast enough on a capacitive touch screen to keep up, and even using a bluetooth keyboard you lose the ability to easily draw diagrams etc. which are often needed in note taking.

I use my ipad to take notes in meetings as I can type fast enough on the on screen keyboard for those kind of very short notes. But that's it for me.