# Taking notes by hand or on a laptop: what the repeat studies found

- URL: https://www.agentskillpacks.com/guides/taking-notes-by-hand-or-on-a-laptop
- Updated: 2026-11-12
- Book: Stop Rereading by Ada Fenwick (https://www.agentskillpacks.com/books/stop-rereading)

## Short answer

Pick the one you will review, and close the other tabs. The idea that laptops hurt learning came mostly from one 2014 study. A direct repeat in 2021 by Urry and colleagues found laptop users did no worse on the quiz than people who wrote by hand. The newest meta-analysis, by Flanigan and colleagues in 2024, found a small edge for taking and reviewing handwritten notes. Two things matter more than the pen: whether you review your notes at all, and whether the laptop is also running your email.

**Laptop versus longhand notes: the main studies and what each found**

| Study | What was tested | What it found |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Mueller and Oppenheimer, 2014 | Three lab studies of laptop and longhand notes during lectures | Laptop note-takers did worse on conceptual questions |
| Urry and colleagues, 2021 | A direct repeat of the first study, with 74 laptop and 68 longhand note-takers | Laptop users typed more word for word, but did no worse on the quiz |
| Morehead, Dunlosky and Rawson, 2019 | Another repeat of the original | Could not reproduce the original pattern (as summarized by the Learning Scientists blog) |
| Voyer and colleagues, 2022 | A meta-analysis of 39 studies | The medium has little influence on achievement (as summarized by Flanigan and colleagues) |
| Flanigan and colleagues, 2024 | A meta-analysis of 24 studies with college students | A small edge for taking and reviewing handwritten notes; typing gave far more notes |
| Lau, 2022 | A review written as a doctoral dissertation | A small edge for handwriting: about 57 percent on a quiz where typists got about 50 |
| Sana and colleagues, 2013 | A simulated classroom | Multitasking on a laptop lowered test scores, for users and for students who could see the screen |

## The short answer: choose the one you will review

Most of us have heard that typing notes is bad for learning. The table above shows how that claim looks now. One study started it. A direct repeat did not find it. The pooled reviews land somewhere between "small edge for paper" and "little difference."

So the choice of pen or keyboard is a small one. Two other choices are bigger. Do you go back to your notes at all? And is the laptop open to anything else while you take them?

## How one 2014 study became a rule

In 2014, [Mueller and Oppenheimer](https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797614524581) ran three lab studies. Students watched lectures and took notes on laptops or by hand. The authors reported that "students who took notes on laptops performed worse on conceptual questions."

Their reason was simple. Typists tend to copy a lecture word for word, and copying gets in the way of putting ideas into your own words. The story was tidy, and it spread quickly.

Then other teams tried to repeat it. In 2021, [Urry and colleagues ran a direct repeat](https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797620965541) of the first study. They had 74 laptop users and 68 who wrote by hand. Laptop users did type more words and more word-for-word notes, just as the first study said. But on the quiz, the laptop group did no worse. A second team, Morehead, Dunlosky and Rawson, also could not reproduce the original pattern in 2019, according to a summary on the Learning Scientists blog.

The pooled reviews do not fully agree with each other. [Flanigan and colleagues' 2024 meta-analysis](https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-024-09914-w) of 24 studies found a small edge for "taking and reviewing handwritten notes." A 2022 dissertation by Lau put that edge in plain numbers: where typists averaged about 50 percent on a quiz, handwriters would average about 57. Lau also found some sign that letting people review their notes shrank the gap.

## Review matters more than the pen

Researchers split the value of notes into two parts. One is writing them. The other is what you do with them later.

In 1985, Kiewra reviewed the research on notes. Taking notes helps on its own, he found, and reviewing them "is additionally beneficial." Flanigan's team put it more bluntly in their summary of older work: the main benefit of lecture notes "emerges from the review of notes."

That is a problem, because review is the step most people skip. Online courses make it easy to skip the notes too. A 2019 survey of 577 college students by Morehead and colleagues found that students often chose not to take notes in online courses at all.

The laptop risk that does hold up is the other tabs. In a simulated classroom, [Sana and colleagues (2013)](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2012.10.003) found that students who multitasked on a laptop during a lecture scored lower on a test. So did students who could see a classmate's screen. If you type, close everything the lecture does not need.

## Two ways to make notes pay off

The chapter **Notes That Help Later** in [Stop Rereading](/books/stop-rereading) gives two tools. Both work on paper or on a screen.

**Close the Book, Then Write** carries a SOLID badge. As soon as a lecture or video ends, close everything. Write what you remember for 5 to 10 minutes. When you stall, wait a full minute, since the last few items often show up late. Then open the notes and add what you missed in a second color. The second-color items are your study list. The badge comes from work like Karpicke and Blunt (2011), where recall practice beat building concept maps, even on questions that needed inferences.

**The Cover-and-Quiz Page** carries a STORY ONLY badge, and the book says why. Draw a line a third of the way across the page and take notes on the right. Within a day, write a question on the left for each chunk. To review, cover the right side and answer out loud. No careful study has tested this layout itself. It borrows from strong evidence that quizzing beats rereading, but the page as a whole is untested.

We like that the chapter does not ask you to switch tools. It asks you to use the notes you already take, later, in a way that makes you pull the ideas back out. If the laptop is open during study, our page on [whether a phone nearby hurts studying](/guides/does-your-phone-nearby-hurt-studying) covers the other half of that problem.

## Where this is in the book

- Notes That Help Later

Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HR35V3FY
Paperback: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HR1238B9

Links go to Amazon. ToolGenX publishes this book under a pen name and earns from every sale.

This book is for general education about learning methods. It is not medical or psychological advice. If you have ongoing trouble with sleep, attention or memory, talk to a health care provider.

## Is the book for you?

- Yes, if You take notes on a laptop and keep hearing you should switch to paper
- Yes, if You write pages of notes and never look at them again
- Yes, if You study from online lectures or videos
- Skip it if You want a verdict that one method always wins
- Skip it if You need notes for a skill you practice with your hands (the companion book covers that)

## FAQ

### Is handwriting notes better for memory?

Maybe by a little. A 2024 meta-analysis of 24 studies found a small edge for taking and reviewing handwritten notes. A 2021 direct repeat of the famous laptop study found no difference on the quiz. The reviews disagree on how reviewing your notes changes the gap.

### Why do laptop notes seem worse?

The original 2014 authors argued that typists copy lectures word for word, which gets in the way of putting ideas in their own words. Later studies did find that typists write more word for word. They did not reliably find worse scores.

### What is the best way to review notes?

Make the review a quiz. Cover your notes and answer questions from memory, then check. Kiewra found in 1985 that reviewing notes adds benefit beyond taking them. Quizzing yourself beats rereading, which is why the book turns review into recall.

### Should I recopy my messy notes into neat ones?

It feels like review, but you look at the page the whole time, so it is mostly copying. A better second pass is to close the notes and rebuild them from memory, then fill the gaps in a second color.