Laptop or Paper Notes for IB? An M28 Guide

For M28 students: IB exams in May 2028, started DP1 in August 2026.

Use both laptop and paper notes in IB. Type information that needs organising and searching, but handwrite calculations, diagrams, essay plans, and anything you must reproduce under timed conditions.

The real decision is not handwriting vs typing for every lesson. It is choosing the format that matches the work each subject requires.

The short answer for new IB students

For most DP1 students, a hybrid note-taking system is the practical default:

• Use a laptop for structured content notes, definitions, quotations, links, tables, and teacher resources.
• Use paper for calculations, diagrams, annotations, retrieval exercises, and timed written practice.
• Use RevisionDojo Study Notes to check whether your personal notes cover the important syllabus content.

A laptop helps you capture and reorganise information. Paper makes it easier to draw freely, work through multi-step reasoning, and practise writing without digital assistance. Neither format is automatically better because IB subjects ask you to perform different kinds of thinking.

How to choose between handwriting and typing

Judge your note-taking method using four criteria.

First, consider the final task. If you will need to construct an argument, draw a diagram, or complete a calculation by hand, some handwritten preparation is sensible.

Second, consider the lesson speed. Typing can be useful when a teacher is explaining a content-heavy topic quickly. However, recording every sentence can create a transcript rather than a useful set of IB classroom notes.

Third, consider retrieval. Digital notes are searchable and easy to rearrange. Paper can be quicker to annotate, but a large collection becomes difficult to navigate unless it is filed carefully.

Fourth, consider distraction. A laptop only saves time when you stay inside the document you need. If notifications, messages, or unrelated tabs repeatedly interrupt you, paper is the more effective tool for that lesson.

Mathematics and calculation-heavy subjects

For Mathematics: Analysis and Approaches, Mathematics: Applications and Interpretation, Physics, and calculation-heavy parts of Chemistry, paper should usually be your main working format.

Mathematical understanding is not captured by copying a finished solution. You need space to test methods, show intermediate steps, identify where an error began, and rewrite the solution correctly. A keyboard can handle notation such as $f(x)$ or $\frac{dy}{dx}$, but entering notation may interrupt your reasoning when the goal is to solve a problem quickly.

Use a laptop to store formula summaries, teacher files, and short explanations. Use paper or a stylus for worked examples and independent practice. Label each problem by topic so you can find related work later.

Biology, Chemistry, and other content-heavy sciences

Science subjects need both factual organisation and active application. A laptop works well for definitions, processes, comparison tables, and links between syllabus ideas. Paper is better suited to drawing biological structures, annotating experimental setups, balancing equations, and completing calculations.

Do not turn science notes into a second textbook. Record the concept, the essential details, a representative diagram, and the mistakes you are likely to make. Then compare your summary with RevisionDojo's IB resources instead of repeatedly formatting the same page.

The strongest system is usually typed topic summaries paired with handwritten question practice. That moves you from recognising information to producing an answer.

History, Economics, Psychology, and essay subjects

A laptop is useful for organising case studies, dates, thinkers, studies, quotations, and competing interpretations. Searchable documents are particularly valuable when one example might support several arguments.

The risk is collecting evidence without learning how to use it. Create concise digital evidence banks, then close the laptop and handwrite thesis statements, paragraph plans, diagrams, and timed responses. Your notes should make writing easier, not become an archive you never test yourself on.

For Economics, use the same split: type definitions and real-world examples, but draw diagrams and practise explanations by hand. For History and Psychology, organise evidence digitally, then retrieve and apply it without copying from the screen.

English and language acquisition

For English A, digital documents make it easier to organise quotations, techniques, global issues, and comparisons between works. Paper remains useful for annotating extracts and planning arguments without relying on search functions.

In language acquisition, type vocabulary lists only if you actively review them. Handwritten recall, sentence construction, and short responses expose gaps that a polished digital list can hide. Speaking practice also needs its own place in the routine because neither typing nor handwriting develops oral fluency by itself.

Use digital storage for organisation and paper for production. This keeps your materials searchable while ensuring that your revision still resembles the work you must perform.

A simple hybrid system for DP1

Keep the system small enough to maintain throughout two years:

• Create one digital folder for each subject.
• Create one document or page for each syllabus topic.
• Keep one paper notebook or divided binder for handwritten work in each calculation-heavy subject.
• Date every page and use the same topic names digitally and on paper.
• At the end of each week, reduce each topic to key ideas, examples, and unresolved questions.
• Use Study Notes to identify omissions before they become revision gaps.

This approach prevents two common failures: disconnected sheets of paper that cannot be found, and attractive digital documents that have never been used for retrieval or practice.

What not to do

Do not copy every slide. Slides remain passive unless you convert them into questions, explanations, or practice.

Do not rewrite complete sets of notes merely to make them look cleaner. Reorganisation is worthwhile only when it improves understanding or retrieval.

Do not choose a laptop because it feels more efficient while ignoring distraction. Equally, do not choose paper because handwriting feels studious if you cannot locate anything later.

Your note format is infrastructure. It should reduce friction between learning a topic, finding it again, and applying it.

Final recommendation

For new M28 students, the best answer to laptop or paper notes in IB is a subject-based hybrid. Use paper most heavily for mathematics, calculations, diagrams, annotations, and timed writing. Use a laptop for searchable summaries, evidence banks, vocabulary, teacher materials, and connections between topics.

The standard is not how complete your notes look. The standard is whether they help you explain, retrieve, and apply the material without looking at the original lesson.

Your next step: choose one topic from this week's lessons, open RevisionDojo, compare your page with its Study Notes, and add only the three most important points you missed.