{"id":217,"title":"How I take notes on my iPad Pro in medical school - Cambridge University medical student","description":"Ali Abdaal, a final year medical student at Cambridge University, shares his comprehensive guide to taking notes using an iPad Pro and Apple Pencil. He begins by comparing his digital handwriting method to traditional handwriting and typing, arguing that the iPad offers the best of both worlds by combining the retention benefits of handwriting with the organization and searchability of digital notes. He then discusses the specific hardware and software he uses, recommending the budget-friendly 2018 iPad for most students and detailing his preference for the Notability app over alternatives like OneNote. Finally, Ali demonstrates various practical use cases, including annotating lecture slides, digitizing physical handouts, looking up information in clinical settings, marking up sheet music, and general brainstorming, showcasing how the iPad has become an integral part of his paperless student workflow.","slug":"how-i-take-notes-on-my-ipad-pro-in-medical-school-cambridge-university-medical-s","creator":"aliabdaal","duration":835.337868,"tags":["Ali Abdaal","note-taking","iPad Pro","Apple Pencil","Notability","study tips","medical school","productivity","student life","digital notes","paperless"],"transcription":"Hey guys, welcome back to the channel. If you're new here, my name is Ali. I'm a final year medical student at Cambridge University, and today we're going to be talking about how I take notes using the iPad and the Apple Pencil. In terms of structure, this video is going to be split up into three parts. In the first part, I'm going to talk about why I use the iPad at all as like a hybrid method of note-taking versus handwriting or typing up notes. In the second part, we'll talk about exactly which iPad I use, which one I'd recommend, and then I'll talk a bit about the app Notability that I use and why I use it. And in the final bit of the video, we'll talk about exactly how I take notes in lectures and if I have a handout and various different use cases and I'll show you how I use Notability. As usual, everything's going to be time-stamped in the description below, so if there's bits of the video that you'd like to skip, you can just skip to the appropriate section of the timestamps. But now, let's just jump into it and let me explain why I use the iPad at all for taking notes. So, the way I see it, there are broadly two ways of making notes. You can either handwrite your notes using pen and paper and like nice colors and highlighters and stuff, or you can type the notes up using an app like OneNote or Evernote and kind of type the notes up on your laptop as a lecture is happening. The reason I use the iPad and the Apple Pencil is because I think both these methods have the disadvantages and the iPad and Apple Pencil method combines the advantages of both and eliminates the disadvantages. So, handwriting is quite good because there's a lot of evidence that if you handwrite your notes, that increases retention versus typing them up. When you handwrite your notes, you can kind of categorize the topic into spider diagrams. You can use different colors, you can draw arrows, you can draw boxes. You can do all these things that mean that you're processing more of the lecture and distilling it into the important bits in your handwritten notes. The fact that handwriting is quite slow also means you have to be selective in what you put down, which means you're more inclined to distill and actually use your brain to make the notes. Obviously, the disadvantage of handwriting is that you end up with reams and reams of paper. And I've got a lot of friends who handwrite their notes and they admit that actually they don't really look at their handwritten notes very often because, you know, they're quite hard to find. You've got to go through and grab your ring binder file from your bookshelf, you've got to open it up, you've got to find the right page. It's just very cumbersome to deal with handwritten notes kind of in the long term. Typing your notes up solves this problem of accessibility. Everything's all in one place, everything is synced across all your different devices. The problem with typing that I find is that, especially if you've got quite a fast typing speed, and I imagine most of you watching this video will because we've all grown up with computers. If you have a fast typing speed, you can just like transcribe what the lecturer is saying and you tend up not really taking much in. So, I used to do this in first year and I'd find that I'd make a perfect copy of what the lecturer said, including all the kind of idiosyncrasies, the ums and ahs, but not really have taken anything in and I have to read through like a 10-page document of like, you know, an annoying transcription of the lecture to actually get what I wanted to say. Even when I wasn't transcribing the lecture kind of word for word, I found that the notes that I would take while typing would just be kind of a little bit of prose, a few bullet points, a bit of prose, a few bullet points. And it was just quite a not very appetizing thing to do, like to look through the lecture notes and to add stuff to it. It was just a bit bland. So that's why I didn't like typing up stuff. Now, the reason I use the iPad and the Apple Pencil is because I think it combines these and you get the best of both worlds with handwriting, like you handwrite your notes on the app that I use, Notability, and you also have all the search and sync functionalities that make typing notes really effective. Obviously, the main disadvantage of the iPad is that it's quite expensive. Uh, this is an iPad Pro. Uh, the new budget 2018 iPad does have Apple Pencil support and it does solve some of the problems because it's about half the price of the iPad Pro. But if you're a student and you've got a very tight budget, then this is probably going to be the most limiting factor. That's the price. But if you're thinking of getting an iPad, if you've got an iPad, if you're getting one for graduation or anything like that, then I think you might want to watch the rest of this video because hopefully I'll be giving you some tips on how I use Notability to take notes in various different scenarios. So, let's talk about now about which iPad I'd recommend. Um, as I said, this is the iPad Pro. Uh, I'll put the prices over here as of kind of today. This is the iPad Pro. It has Apple Pencil support. I bought it last year. But Apple recently released a 2018 iPad as well, which has Apple Pencil support and is about half the price of the iPad Pro. So, the only difference between the iPad Pro and the iPad is that the Pro is slightly more powerful and the Pro has a slightly decreased distance between the pencil and the screen or like the screen and the the thing so that it feels a little bit more like you're writing on paper, whereas with the 2018 iPad, you have a little bit of a gap. Uh, most videos that I've seen on YouTube say that you don't really notice this gap with the 2018 iPad unless you're like a digital artist. So, if you're just buying an iPad to take notes, uh, in school or at university, I'd probably recommend the 2018 iPad rather than the 2017 iPad Pro. The 2018 iPad is about half the price of the iPad Pro. But at some point, I'm going to borrow one of my friends' 2018 iPads and we're going to do like a full-on comparison. So, if you'd like to see that, let me know in the comments and I'll expedite the process of that happening. So, by this point, we've got an iPad. Uh, now, what app do I use? Uh, the app I used, as I said, is called Notability. And I think Notability is the best note-taking app for the iPad, provided you have a Mac OS device that you use as your laptop or your desktop. The problem with Notability is that it's not available on Windows, which means if you are using Windows, you should probably use something like OneNote. I've heard very good things about OneNote, and OneNote for Windows is very powerful. OneNote for Mac is less good. But for the rest of this video, we're going to be talking about Notability and why I like it. So, one of the reasons why I like it is that it gives you a good structure uh to structure your notes in. So, you get dividers and you get within dividers, you get subjects. So, depending on the layout of your course, depending on kind of how you want to organize things, that's quite an intuitive way of doing it because it's how we naturally uh split things up when we're doing handwritten notes into dividers, like folders, and then subjects within that. Secondly, Notability is nice because you have lots of different colors that you can highlight stuff in. You can you can write in like a nice shade of blue, you can highlight in like a nice shade of pink. So, like I quite enjoy writing in this kind of little dark blue. Hello. And then if you want to highlight, you can use green, which is quite fun. I also like the fact that Notability integrates nicely with Google Drive and Dropbox. So, because all of my life is on Google Drive and I want to import a PDF, it's very easy to import straight into Notability from Google Drive. You just click the import button and you can import it directly from Google Drive as a PDF. Also, if I'm scanning something, like a document on my iPhone using Scannable, uh the app, I can convert that to a PDF and AirDrop it to my iPad, open straight up in Notability. It's quite a seamless process from getting notes in real life or in PDF format into Notability itself. And also, another reason I like Notability over OneNote is because Notability restricts you to writing on pages. The problem I found with OneNote is that it gives you like an infinite horizontal and vertical canvas, which means your notes can span like a huge amount of space. And that does have its uses, but I think because we're all used to writing on paper, I think the fact that Notability limits you to writing in different pages uh is really helpful. It's helpful because it kind of forces you to kind of stick to this A4-sized page of of writing stuff. But it's more helpful if you want to share your notes. And sharing is really important. Sharing is caring, especially in medical school, we should all be collaborating and sharing our notes. If a friend of mine asks for my notes, all I have to do is export it as a PDF and I can send it to them. Whereas when I used to try and share OneNote drives, you'd have to share the link to the OneDrive thing and it would never work. And if you tried to export it to a PDF, you'd end up with this really weird-shaped PDF that no one would be able to read. I'll be honest, I've not really tried many of the other apps. The ones I've tried are OneNote, Notability, and Evernote. And of those three, I love Notability the most. But there are a few others like GoodNotes and and stuff like that. But there's lots of other YouTube videos where people compare GoodNotes with OneNote and a few of the other ones that if you really want to kind of shop for more, you can find them. But the one that works for me and that's worked for me for the last like four years is Notability and I've not really looked back. Now I want to talk you through some of the use cases that I find um and how I use Notability to take notes in those use cases. So, let's start with lectures. Uh, lectures are a staple of all university courses. How do we take notes in lectures? Ideally, we want to be pre-reading the lecture notes or the slides to get an idea of what the broad subheadings are, and then we can kind of write those subheadings down right at the top of our note. But more often than not, most students, including myself, we tend not to pre-read the lecture, even though we should. Uh, so most of our note-taking tends to be in the format of like while the lecture is happening, we're taking notes. So, a couple of weeks ago, we had a revision lecture for radiology that I am going to show you. And I think that illustrates some of these some of these principles nicely. Radiology revision for finals. Let's go all the way to the top. So, as the lecturer was saying important things, I was writing stuff down. This is what writing stuff looks like. And, you know, you can draw you can draw arrows, you can like color things in, you can use the highlighter to highlight things if that helps. So, I was doing all of that as the lecture was happening and that actually just generally helps me be more engaged with lectures. Otherwise, I tend to find that I fall asleep in lectures. It's very easy to fall asleep. But if I'm taking notes and I'm focused on A, understanding what the lecturer is talking about, and B, distilling it into decent note format that also looks pretty, that engages my brain enough to keep me awake. Another really good feature of Notability is that you can take pictures as you're going along and include them into your notes. So, radiology is quite an image-based subject. So, as the lecturer was putting up uh chest X-rays and stuff on the PowerPoint, I was kind of getting my iPad up, taking a photo of it, and then putting it um into into Notability and then highlighting them. So, as you can see, we've got quite a few chest X-rays here. We've got some annotations. We've got some some highlighting that I've done. And if I wanted to, I could like draw more boxes and you can you can basically do anything uh after you're done with an image. You can like move it around, you can crop it. And yeah, you just end up with like a good set of notes for the lecture that can look quite pretty as well. So, that's what happens in lectures that have PowerPoints. Um, we had a class yesterday, actually, uh where we had a handout instead, and it was like a small group session. There wasn't really a PowerPoint. It was just a handout and we were working through the handout. Now, I don't like handouts at all because I lose them and they get crumpled up in my bag and I don't like paper. I've gone completely paperless. So, what I did is I used my phone. I used the Scannable app, which you can get for free on a phone, to scan in the little bits of paper, the handout that we got. It was like a seven-page handout. I scanned it all in using Scannable, converted it to a PDF, AirDropped it across to my iPad, opened it in Notability, and this is what it looked like. We were talking about prescribing fluids. So, I started off by just making a standard a standard page in Notability and kind of writing some stuff down, some stuff about what's good fluid replacement is and how to deal with hyponatremia. That's reduced sodium. And then I added the the PDF that I scanned in. So, as you can see, this is the handout. There are some questions here, and I was able to annotate and kind of fill in the worksheet as we were going along in our session. And now I will have this on my iPad, on my Mac, on my phone, like forever. Thirdly, I find that the iPad is really good for making notes in real life, uh, especially in clinical scenarios. So, let's say I'm observing a GP consultation and and the patient has mentioned something. Uh, I would like make a new note and let's say they're talking about their like chest pain or something, and at some point they mentioned the phrase that they've got Ebstein's anomaly. So, I would write this down in my notes. And I would think, huh, I don't really know what Ebstein's anomaly is. So, there's a very easy day to get easy way to get around that. I can just open up Safari in split-screen mode. I can go and Google, I can type in Ebstein's anomaly. And then I get the results straight there. Ebstein's anomaly is a congenital heart defect in which the septal and posterior leaflets of the tricuspid valve are displaced towards the apex of the right ventricle of the heart. Uh, so if that means anything to me, I can just kind of select it on the iPad and the really cool thing is you can just like drag and drop. You can drag and drop text. Let's say I want this image, I can just grab it, drop it straight into Notability. What a time to be alive. This is absolutely incredible. And if I want, I can just kind of draw a box around it. I can like highlight stuff. I can like change the color and draw another picture. And I'm doing this all while the patient is there kind of in in this room. Obviously, you won't be paying attention to the patient, but in these circumstances when you do have to look stuff up that is quite critical for you to understand, having an iPad there is so much better than getting your phone out because getting your phone out means that everyone thinks you're like texting on your phone and it just looks really rude having a phone out. Whereas if you have your little iPad and your pencil out and you're like writing stuff down and, you know, actually actively paying attention and kind of looking things up, making your notes, that looks a lot more professional, looks a lot more legit rather than getting your phone out. So, that's another reason why I really like using tablets in in the workplace environment. So, what else is Notability good for? Um, it's really good for annotating PDFs of books and just kind of having there as a store of various PDFs. So, hypothetically, if I were to download PDFs of medical textbooks rather than buy the 50-pound versions of them, or perhaps in addition to buying the 50-pound versions of them, hypothetically, I'd be able to import those PDFs into Notability. And let's say it's a multiple choice questions book. It's got some questions on it. I can just kind of answer them on the iPad and I'm not kind of ruining it. I can always kind of rub them out if I have to, but it's just a very easy way of getting a lot of textbooks onto your onto your system, reading through them, highlighting, annotating, doing whatever you want. On the note of annotating PDFs, I've also recently started to learn how to read music on the piano. So, I downloaded loads of sheet music and I have it like in a sheet music folder organized by, you know, classical, pop, Disney, Yiruma, music from musicals. Let's get some, you know, Sound of Music, Climb Every Mountain, all of this stuff. Phantom of the Opera, All I Ask of You. So, you can see I I've managed to download this sheet music online um and put it in as a PDF. And actually, one of the songs that I'm learning is Jared Radnich's version of Pirates of the Caribbean. And because I'm not very good at reading music, I've been able to annotate stuff using Notability. So, I can like write down the names of the notes, write down the names of the chords, and that helps me kind of learn a bit better. And finally, I use it as a general note-taking app just just for life in general. So, if I ever have an idea for a YouTube video, I would just kind of make a new document about it. This is the one that I made about this very video. I had the idea on the 24th of February 2018, apparently. And I had this sort of idea of what I would make, what I would say in the video and kind of extended it over time. And the reason I like handwriting notes is that it like encourages me to make more notes. Normally, I just type stuff out, but typing stuff out is quite boring, whereas, you know, putting up a plan for a a YouTube video together by like, you know, writing stuff down and doing arrows and doing boxes and making it look pretty encourages me to actually do it. And I think that alone is worth having the iPad for. If it encourages you to improve your note-taking and to take more notes about, you know, just general ideas, general day-to-day life, that's a really useful thing. So, yeah, those were some of the ways that I use Notability. Um, I hope you found that useful. I think that brings us to the end of the video now. Uh, we've talked about why I use the iPad at all for note-taking rather than handwriting or rather than typing notes up, which are the other two alternatives. We've talked about which iPad I'd recommend, probably the budget 2018 one that does have Apple Pencil support. Um, but I've got a more detailed video comparing the iPad Pro and the 2018 iPad coming up at some point soon, hopefully. We talked about which app I use, Notability all the way, unless you have a Windows computer, in which case you probably want to use OneNote. It has broadly similar features. And we talked about a couple of use cases like, you know, lectures, handouts, in clinical scenarios, uh, sheet music, general ideas, annotating PDFs of books, all of that stuff. So, I really hope you found this this video useful. A lot of you have been asking how I use the iPad for note-taking, uh, because I've, you know, used it all the time in my study with me videos. So, I hope this has given you some insight into that. If you like the video, please give it a thumbs up. If you haven't subscribed to the channel, please consider doing so. Have a lovely day, and I'll see you in the next video. Bye-bye.","timeline":[{"t":0,"speech":"","visual":{"action":"A quick montage shows a person's hands opening a brown leather case for a white iPad, turning it on, and picking up an Apple Pencil.","colors":{"dominant":"brown","palette":["brown","wood grain","white","teal","skin tone"]},"composition":{"angle":"overhead and eye-level","focus":"shallow","framing":"close-up"},"mood":"productive","objects":[{"color":"brown","name":"iPad case","position":"center","state":"being opened"},{"color":"white","name":"iPad","position":"center","state":"screen turning on"},{"color":"white","name":"Apple Pencil","position":"center","state":"being picked up"}],"people":[],"setting":{"architecture":"","background":"A wooden desk with a white keyboard partially visible.","lighting":"soft, natural","location":"desk in a room"},"text_on_screen":[]}},{"t":7,"speech":"Hey guys, welcome back to the channel. If you're new here, my name is Ali. I'm a final year medical student at Cambridge University, and today we're going to be talking about how I take notes using the iPad and the Apple Pencil.","visual":{"action":"A young man, Ali, sits at his desk and speaks directly to the camera, gesturing with his hands. He holds a white Apple Pencil.","colors":{"dominant":"yellow","palette":["pale yellow","grey","wood brown","dark green","white"]},"composition":{"angle":"eye-level","focus":"focused on the man","framing":"medium shot"},"mood":"friendly and informative","objects":[{"color":"white","name":"Apple Pencil","position":"in his right hand","state":"being held"},{"color":"brown","name":"desk","position":"in front of him","state":"static"}],"people":[{"age_range":"20-25","clothing":{"accessories":"black-rimmed glasses, black watch","bottom":"","footwear":"","top":"light grey t-shirt"},"face":"smiling, friendly expression","hair":"short, dark, curly","hands":"gesturing to emphasize his words","pose":"sitting at a desk, leaning slightly forward","position":"center frame"}],"setting":{"architecture":"","background":"A bedroom with a bed, posters on the pale yellow wall, and a wardrobe.","lighting":"bright, natural light from a window off-screen","location":"bedroom/study"},"text_on_screen":[{"content":"FB @ALIABDAAL","location":"bottom left","style":"white text on blue and pink banners"},{"content":"TWITTER @ALIABDAAL","location":"bottom left","style":"white text on blue and pink banners"},{"content":"INSTAGRAM @ALIABDAAL","location":"bottom left","style":"white text on blue and pink banners"}]}},{"t":20,"speech":"In the first part, I'm going to talk about why I use the iPad at all as like a hybrid method of note-taking versus handwriting or typing up notes.","visual":{"action":"Ali continues to speak to the camera, outlining the video structure. An on-screen text box appears to illustrate the first point.","colors":{"dominant":"yellow","palette":["pale yellow","grey","wood brown","dark green","white"]},"composition":{"angle":"eye-level","focus":"focused on Ali","framing":"medium shot"},"mood":"organized and clear","objects":[{"color":"white","name":"Apple Pencil","position":"in his right hand","state":"being held"}],"people":[{"age_range":"20-25","clothing":{"accessories":"black-rimmed glasses","bottom":"","footwear":"","top":"light grey t-shirt"},"face":"neutral, focused expression","hair":"short, dark, curly","hands":"gesturing to his side","pose":"sitting at a desk","position":"center frame"}],"setting":{"architecture":"","background":"His bedroom, with a bed and posters visible.","lighting":"bright, natural","location":"bedroom/study"},"text_on_screen":[{"content":"00:48 - iPad vs hand-writing vs typed up notes.","location":"center right","style":"white text in a grey, semi-transparent rounded rectangle"}]}},{"t":32,"speech":"And in the final bit of the video, we'll talk about exactly how I take notes in lectures and if I have a handout and just various different use cases and I'll show you how I use Notability.","visual":{"action":"Ali explains the third part of the video, and a third text box appears on screen, stacking below the previous two.","colors":{"dominant":"yellow","palette":["pale yellow","grey","wood brown","dark green","white"]},"composition":{"angle":"eye-level","focus":"focused on Ali","framing":"medium shot"},"mood":"structured and comprehensive","objects":[],"people":[{"age_range":"20-25","clothing":{"accessories":"black-rimmed glasses","bottom":"","footwear":"","top":"light grey t-shirt"},"face":"expressive, talking","hair":"short, dark, curly","hands":"gesturing with both hands","pose":"sitting at a desk","position":"center frame"}],"setting":{"architecture":"","background":"His bedroom, with a bed and posters visible.","lighting":"bright, natural","location":"bedroom/study"},"text_on_screen":[{"content":"00:48 - iPad vs hand-writing vs typed up notes.","location":"center right","style":"white text in a grey, semi-transparent rounded rectangle"},{"content":"03:19 - iPad Pro vs normal iPad with Apple pencil, and why I use the app Notability for all my note-taking needs.","location":"center right","style":"white text in a grey, semi-transparent rounded rectangle"},{"content":"06:54 - How I use Notability to take notes in lectures and seminars. Also stuff about annotating PDFs, sheet music and general note-taking in day-to-day life.","location":"center right","style":"white text in a grey, semi-transparent rounded rectangle"}]}},{"t":48,"speech":"","visual":{"action":"A full-screen title card appears.","colors":{"dominant":"teal","palette":["teal","white"]},"composition":{"angle":"eye-level","focus":"sharp","framing":"full screen"},"mood":"transitional","objects":[],"people":[],"setting":{"architecture":"","background":"solid teal background","lighting":"uniform","location":"graphic"},"text_on_screen":[{"content":"WHY I TAKE NOTES WITH AN IPAD + APPLE PENCIL","location":"center","style":"bold, white, sans-serif font"}]}},{"t":53,"speech":"You can either handwrite your notes using pen and paper and like nice colors and highlighters and stuff.","visual":{"action":"A close-up shot shows someone's hands flipping through a spiral-bound notebook filled with detailed, color-coded handwritten notes and diagrams.","colors":{"dominant":"white","palette":["white","black","orange","light green","wood brown"]},"composition":{"angle":"high angle","focus":"focused on the notebook","framing":"close-up"},"mood":"academic and detailed","objects":[{"color":"white","name":"notebook","position":"center","state":"pages being flipped"},{"color":"white","name":"keyboard","position":"top left","state":"static"}],"people":[],"setting":{"architecture":"","background":"A wooden desk surface.","lighting":"soft, ambient","location":"desk"},"text_on_screen":[]}},{"t":58,"speech":"Or you can type the notes up using an app like OneNote or Evernote and kind of type the notes up on your laptop as a lecture is happening.","visual":{"action":"A close-up shot shows a person's hands typing quickly on a silver Apple keyboard.","colors":{"dominant":"wood brown","palette":["wood brown","silver","white","skin tone","dark red"]},"composition":{"angle":"side angle","focus":"focused on the hands and keyboard","framing":"close-up"},"mood":"focused and fast-paced","objects":[{"color":"silver","name":"keyboard","position":"center","state":"being typed on"},{"color":"white","name":"mug","position":"background","state":"static"}],"people":[{"age_range":"20-25","clothing":{"accessories":"watch with a dark red band","bottom":"","footwear":"","top":""},"face":"","hair":"","hands":"typing rapidly on the keyboard","pose":"sitting","position":"center"}],"setting":{"architecture":"","background":"A wooden desk with a mug and other indistinct items.","lighting":"soft, warm","location":"desk"},"text_on_screen":[]}},{"t":67,"speech":"and the iPad and Apple Pencil method combines the advantages of both and eliminates the disadvantages.","visual":{"action":"A close-up, overhead shot of a person using an Apple Pencil to write and highlight notes on an iPad.","colors":{"dominant":"wood brown","palette":["wood brown","light green","white","skin tone","yellow"]},"composition":{"angle":"overhead","focus":"focused on the iPad screen","framing":"close-up"},"mood":"efficient and modern","objects":[{"color":"white","name":"iPad","position":"center","state":"being written on"},{"color":"white","name":"Apple Pencil","position":"center","state":"writing and highlighting"}],"people":[],"setting":{"architecture":"","background":"A wooden desk surface.","lighting":"soft, even","location":"desk"},"text_on_screen":[]}},{"t":75,"speech":"So, handwriting is quite good because there's a lot of evidence that if you handwrite your notes, that increases retention versus typing them up.","visual":{"action":"Ali speaks to the camera, explaining the benefits of handwriting for memory retention.","colors":{"dominant":"yellow","palette":["pale yellow","grey","wood brown","dark green","white"]},"composition":{"angle":"eye-level","focus":"focused on Ali","framing":"medium shot"},"mood":"educational","objects":[],"people":[{"age_range":"20-25","clothing":{"accessories":"black-rimmed glasses","bottom":"","footwear":"","top":"light grey t-shirt"},"face":"earnest expression","hair":"short, dark, curly","hands":"gesturing to explain a point","pose":"sitting at a desk","position":"center frame"}],"setting":{"architecture":"","background":"His bedroom, with a bed and posters visible.","lighting":"bright, natural","location":"bedroom/study"},"text_on_screen":[]}},{"t":88,"speech":"You can do all these things that mean that you're processing more of the lecture and distilling it into the important bits in your handwritten notes.","visual":{"action":"Ali continues explaining the cognitive benefits of handwriting notes, using hand gestures to represent the process of distilling information.","colors":{"dominant":"yellow","palette":["pale yellow","grey","wood brown","dark green","white"]},"composition":{"angle":"eye-level","focus":"focused on Ali","framing":"medium shot"},"mood":"analytical","objects":[],"people":[{"age_range":"20-25","clothing":{"accessories":"black-rimmed glasses","bottom":"","footwear":"","top":"light grey t-shirt"},"face":"focused, explaining","hair":"short, dark, curly","hands":"making a cupping and distilling motion","pose":"sitting at a desk","position":"center frame"}],"setting":{"architecture":"","background":"His bedroom.","lighting":"bright, natural","location":"bedroom/study"},"text_on_screen":[]}},{"t":98,"speech":"Obviously, the disadvantage of handwriting is that you end up with reams and reams of paper. And I've got a lot of friends who handwrite their notes and they admit that actually they don't really look at their handwritten notes very often because, you know, they're quite hard to find.","visual":{"action":"Ali discusses the downsides of physical, handwritten notes, emphasizing the clutter and difficulty of access.","colors":{"dominant":"yellow","palette":["pale yellow","grey","wood brown","dark green","white"]},"composition":{"angle":"eye-level","focus":"focused on Ali","framing":"medium shot"},"mood":"critical","objects":[],"people":[{"age_range":"20-25","clothing":{"accessories":"black-rimmed glasses","bottom":"","footwear":"","top":"light grey t-shirt"},"face":"slightly exasperated expression","hair":"short, dark, curly","hands":"gesturing to indicate a large pile","pose":"sitting at a desk","position":"center frame"}],"setting":{"architecture":"","background":"His bedroom.","lighting":"bright, natural","location":"bedroom/study"},"text_on_screen":[]}},{"t":115,"speech":"Typing your notes up solves this problem of accessibility. Everything's all in one place, everything is synced across all your different devices.","visual":{"action":"Ali transitions to discussing the benefits of typed notes, highlighting their accessibility and synchronization.","colors":{"dominant":"yellow","palette":["pale yellow","grey","wood brown","dark green","white"]},"composition":{"angle":"eye-level","focus":"focused on Ali","framing":"medium shot"},"mood":"positive","objects":[],"people":[{"age_range":"20-25","clothing":{"accessories":"black-rimmed glasses","bottom":"","footwear":"","top":"light grey t-shirt"},"face":"nodding, agreeable expression","hair":"short, dark, curly","hands":"open palm gestures","pose":"sitting at a desk","position":"center frame"}],"setting":{"architecture":"","background":"His bedroom.","lighting":"bright, natural","location":"bedroom/study"},"text_on_screen":[]}},{"t":125,"speech":"If you have a fast typing speed, you can just like transcribe what the lecturer is saying and you tend up not really taking much in.","visual":{"action":"Ali explains the major drawback of typing notes: the tendency to transcribe without processing the information.","colors":{"dominant":"yellow","palette":["pale yellow","grey","wood brown","dark green","white"]},"composition":{"angle":"eye-level","focus":"focused on Ali","framing":"medium shot"},"mood":"cautionary","objects":[],"people":[{"age_range":"20-25","clothing":{"accessories":"black-rimmed glasses","bottom":"","footwear":"","top":"light grey t-shirt"},"face":"serious expression","hair":"short, dark, curly","hands":"mimicking typing","pose":"sitting at a desk","position":"center frame"}],"setting":{"architecture":"","background":"His bedroom.","lighting":"bright, natural","location":"bedroom/study"},"text_on_screen":[]}},{"t":140,"speech":"Even when I wasn't transcribing the lecture kind of word for word, I found that the notes that I would take while typing would just be kind of a little bit of prose, a few bullet points, a bit of prose, a few bullet points.","visual":{"action":"Ali describes the unengaging, linear format of typed notes, contrasting them with more dynamic handwritten notes.","colors":{"dominant":"yellow","palette":["pale yellow","grey","wood brown","dark green","white"]},"composition":{"angle":"eye-level","focus":"focused on Ali","framing":"medium shot"},"mood":"disappointed","objects":[],"people":[{"age_range":"20-25","clothing":{"accessories":"black-rimmed glasses","bottom":"","footwear":"","top":"light grey t-shirt"},"face":"slightly bored expression","hair":"short, dark, curly","hands":"making small, repetitive gestures","pose":"sitting at a desk","position":"center frame"}],"setting":{"architecture":"","background":"His bedroom.","lighting":"bright, natural","location":"bedroom/study"},"text_on_screen":[]}},{"t":150,"speech":"So that's why I didn't like typing up stuff. Now, the reason I use the iPad and the Apple Pencil is because I think it combines these and you get the best of both worlds with handwriting, like you handwrite your notes on the app that I use, Notability,","visual":{"action":"Ali brings the iPad back into frame, holding it and the Apple Pencil to present them as the solution.","colors":{"dominant":"yellow","palette":["pale yellow","grey","wood brown","dark green","white"]},"composition":{"angle":"eye-level","focus":"focused on Ali and the iPad","framing":"medium shot"},"mood":"conclusive and enthusiastic","objects":[{"color":"white","name":"iPad","position":"held in his left hand","state":"being presented"},{"color":"white","name":"Apple Pencil","position":"held in his right hand","state":"being presented"}],"people":[{"age_range":"20-25","clothing":{"accessories":"black-rimmed glasses","bottom":"","footwear":"","top":"light grey t-shirt"},"face":"smiling, confident","hair":"short, dark, curly","hands":"holding up the iPad and Pencil","pose":"sitting at a desk","position":"center frame"}],"setting":{"architecture":"","background":"His bedroom.","lighting":"bright, natural","location":"bedroom/study"},"text_on_screen":[]}},{"t":165,"speech":"Obviously, the main disadvantage of the iPad is that it's quite expensive. Uh, this is an iPad Pro. Uh, the new budget 2018 iPad does have Apple Pencil support and it does solve some of the problems because it's about half the price of the iPad Pro.","visual":{"action":"Ali acknowledges the high cost of the iPad Pro but mentions the more affordable 2018 iPad as a viable alternative.","colors":{"dominant":"yellow","palette":["pale yellow","grey","wood brown","dark green","white"]},"composition":{"angle":"eye-level","focus":"focused on Ali","framing":"medium shot"},"mood":"practical and realistic","objects":[{"color":"white","name":"iPad Pro","position":"held in his left hand","state":"static"}],"people":[{"age_range":"20-25","clothing":{"accessories":"black-rimmed glasses","bottom":"","footwear":"","top":"light grey t-shirt"},"face":"pragmatic expression","hair":"short, dark, curly","hands":"gesturing with the Apple Pencil","pose":"sitting at a desk","position":"center frame"}],"setting":{"architecture":"","background":"His bedroom.","lighting":"bright, natural","location":"bedroom/study"},"text_on_screen":[]}},{"t":180,"speech":"But if you're thinking of getting an iPad, if you've got an iPad, if you're getting one for graduation or anything like that, then I think you might want to watch the rest of this video because hopefully I'll be giving you some tips on how I use Notability to take notes in various different scenarios.","visual":{"action":"Ali sets up the next section of the video, inviting viewers with iPads to continue watching for his specific tips and workflows.","colors":{"dominant":"yellow","palette":["pale yellow","grey","wood brown","dark green","white"]},"composition":{"angle":"eye-level","focus":"focused on Ali","framing":"medium shot"},"mood":"inviting and helpful","objects":[],"people":[{"age_range":"20-25","clothing":{"accessories":"black-rimmed glasses","bottom":"","footwear":"","top":"light grey t-shirt"},"face":"smiling, engaging","hair":"short, dark, curly","hands":"open, welcoming gestures","pose":"sitting at a desk","position":"center frame"}],"setting":{"architecture":"","background":"His bedroom.","lighting":"bright, natural","location":"bedroom/study"},"text_on_screen":[]}},{"t":199,"speech":"","visual":{"action":"A full-screen title card appears.","colors":{"dominant":"teal","palette":["teal","white"]},"composition":{"angle":"eye-level","focus":"sharp","framing":"full screen"},"mood":"transitional","objects":[],"people":[],"setting":{"architecture":"","background":"solid teal background","lighting":"uniform","location":"graphic"},"text_on_screen":[{"content":"WHICH IPAD SHOULD SHOULD YOU BUY?","location":"center","style":"bold, white, sans-serif font"}]}},{"t":207,"speech":"So, let's talk about now about which iPad I'd recommend. Um, as I said, this is the iPad Pro. Uh, I'll put the prices over here as of kind of today.","visual":{"action":"Ali begins discussing which iPad to buy. Text overlays showing the prices of different models appear on screen.","colors":{"dominant":"yellow","palette":["pale yellow","grey","teal","pink","white"]},"composition":{"angle":"eye-level","focus":"focused on Ali","framing":"medium shot"},"mood":"informative and practical","objects":[{"color":"white","name":"iPad Pro","position":"held in his hands","state":"being displayed"}],"people":[{"age_range":"20-25","clothing":{"accessories":"black-rimmed glasses","bottom":"","footwear":"","top":"light grey t-shirt"},"face":"speaking to camera","hair":"short, dark, curly","hands":"holding the iPad and gesturing towards the on-screen text","pose":"sitting at a desk","position":"center frame"}],"setting":{"architecture":"","background":"His bedroom.","lighting":"bright, natural","location":"bedroom/study"},"text_on_screen":[{"content":"APPLE PENCIL - £89 / $99","location":"bottom left","style":"white text on a teal banner"},{"content":"IPAD 32GB - £319 / $329","location":"bottom left","style":"white text on a pink banner"},{"content":"IPAD PRO 64GB - £619 / $649","location":"bottom left","style":"white text on a teal banner"}]}},{"t":220,"speech":"So, the only difference between the iPad Pro and the iPad is that the Pro is slightly more powerful and the Pro has a slightly decreased distance between the pencil and the screen or like the screen and the the thing","visual":{"action":"Ali compares the iPad Pro and the standard iPad, focusing on the small difference in the air gap between the screen and the glass.","colors":{"dominant":"yellow","palette":["pale yellow","grey","teal","pink","white"]},"composition":{"angle":"eye-level","focus":"focused on Ali","framing":"medium shot"},"mood":"technical","objects":[{"color":"white","name":"Apple Pencil","position":"in his right hand","state":"being used to gesture"}],"people":[{"age_range":"20-25","clothing":{"accessories":"black-rimmed glasses","bottom":"","footwear":"","top":"light grey t-shirt"},"face":"explaining a subtle point","hair":"short, dark, curly","hands":"using fingers to show a small gap","pose":"sitting at a desk","position":"center frame"}],"setting":{"architecture":"","background":"His bedroom.","lighting":"bright, natural","location":"bedroom/study"},"text_on_screen":[{"content":"APPLE PENCIL - £89 / $99","location":"bottom left","style":"white text on a teal banner"},{"content":"IPAD 32GB - £319 / $329","location":"bottom left","style":"white text on a pink banner"},{"content":"IPAD PRO 64GB - £619 / $649","location":"bottom left","style":"white text on a teal banner"}]}},{"t":235,"speech":"So, if you're just buying an iPad to take notes, uh, in school or at university, I'd probably recommend the 2018 iPad rather than the 2017 iPad Pro.","visual":{"action":"Ali gives his final recommendation on which iPad to buy for note-taking purposes, favoring the cheaper model.","colors":{"dominant":"yellow","palette":["pale yellow","grey","teal","pink","white"]},"composition":{"angle":"eye-level","focus":"focused on Ali","framing":"medium shot"},"mood":"conclusive and advisory","objects":[],"people":[{"age_range":"20-25","clothing":{"accessories":"black-rimmed glasses","bottom":"","footwear":"","top":"light grey t-shirt"},"face":"confident, making a recommendation","hair":"short, dark, curly","hands":"gesturing for emphasis","pose":"sitting at a desk","position":"center frame"}],"setting":{"architecture":"","background":"His bedroom.","lighting":"bright, natural","location":"bedroom/study"},"text_on_screen":[{"content":"APPLE PENCIL - £89 / $99","location":"bottom left","style":"white text on a teal banner"},{"content":"IPAD 32GB - £319 / $329","location":"bottom left","style":"white text on a pink banner"},{"content":"IPAD PRO 64GB - £619 / $649","location":"bottom left","style":"white text on a teal banner"}]}},{"t":247,"speech":"","visual":{"action":"A full-screen title card appears.","colors":{"dominant":"teal","palette":["teal","white"]},"composition":{"angle":"eye-level","focus":"sharp","framing":"full screen"},"mood":"transitional","objects":[],"people":[],"setting":{"architecture":"","background":"solid teal background","lighting":"uniform","location":"graphic"},"text_on_screen":[{"content":"WHICH NOTE-TAKING APP I USE","location":"center","style":"bold, white, sans-serif font"}]}},{"t":253,"speech":"The app I used, as I said, is called Notability. And I think Notability is the best note-taking app for the iPad,","visual":{"action":"Ali introduces his preferred note-taking app, Notability. The app's icon appears on screen.","colors":{"dominant":"yellow","palette":["pale yellow","grey","blue","yellow","white"]},"composition":{"angle":"eye-level","focus":"focused on Ali","framing":"medium shot"},"mood":"enthusiastic","objects":[{"color":"white","name":"iPad","position":"on the desk in front of him","state":"screen is on, showing Notability"}],"people":[{"age_range":"20-25","clothing":{"accessories":"black-rimmed glasses","bottom":"","footwear":"","top":"light grey t-shirt"},"face":"smiling","hair":"short, dark, curly","hands":"gesturing towards the iPad","pose":"sitting at a desk","position":"center frame"}],"setting":{"architecture":"","background":"His bedroom.","lighting":"bright, natural","location":"bedroom/study"},"text_on_screen":[{"content":"NOTABILITY","location":"bottom right","style":"White text below the app icon (a pencil in a microphone on a blue background)"}]}},{"t":265,"speech":"The problem with Notability is that it's not available on Windows, which means if you are using Windows, you should probably use something like OneNote.","visual":{"action":"Ali explains a major limitation of Notability (no Windows version) and suggests OneNote as an alternative. The OneNote logo appears.","colors":{"dominant":"yellow","palette":["pale yellow","grey","purple","white"]},"composition":{"angle":"eye-level","focus":"focused on Ali","framing":"medium shot"},"mood":"helpful","objects":[],"people":[{"age_range":"20-25","clothing":{"accessories":"black-rimmed glasses","bottom":"","footwear":"","top":"light grey t-shirt"},"face":"speaking directly to camera","hair":"short, dark, curly","hands":"gesturing","pose":"sitting at a desk","position":"center frame"}],"setting":{"architecture":"","background":"His bedroom.","lighting":"bright, natural","location":"bedroom/study"},"text_on_screen":[{"content":"OneNote","location":"bottom center","style":"Purple and white OneNote logo and text"}]}},{"t":275,"speech":"So, one of the reasons why I like it is that it gives you a good structure uh to structure your notes in. So, you get dividers and you get within dividers, you get subjects.","visual":{"action":"Ali shows the Notability interface on his iPad, explaining the organizational structure of dividers and subjects while scrolling through his own notes.","colors":{"dominant":"grey","palette":["white","grey","blue","red","skin tone"]},"composition":{"angle":"eye-level","focus":"sharp, focused on both Ali and the screen recording","framing":"medium shot with a screen recording overlay"},"mood":"demonstrative","objects":[],"people":[{"age_range":"20-25","clothing":{"accessories":"black-rimmed glasses","bottom":"","footwear":"","top":"light grey t-shirt"},"face":"explaining","hair":"short, dark, curly","hands":"gesturing towards the screen recording","pose":"sitting at a desk","position":"left of center"}],"setting":{"architecture":"","background":"His bedroom.","lighting":"bright, natural","location":"bedroom/study"},"text_on_screen":[{"content":"Notability App Interface","location":"right side of screen","style":"Screen recording showing folders and notes"}]}},{"t":293,"speech":"Secondly, Notability is nice because you have lots of different colors that you can highlight stuff in. You can you can write in like a nice shade of blue, you can highlight in like a nice shade of pink.","visual":{"action":"Ali demonstrates the color and highlighting options within Notability on his iPad.","colors":{"dominant":"yellow","palette":["pale yellow","grey","wood brown","dark green","white"]},"composition":{"angle":"eye-level","focus":"focused on Ali","framing":"medium shot"},"mood":"creative and enthusiastic","objects":[{"color":"white","name":"iPad","position":"on the desk","state":"being used"},{"color":"white","name":"Apple Pencil","position":"in his hand","state":"writing on the iPad"}],"people":[{"age_range":"20-25","clothing":{"accessories":"black-rimmed glasses","bottom":"","footwear":"","top":"light grey t-shirt"},"face":"smiling","hair":"short, dark, curly","hands":"writing on the iPad screen","pose":"sitting and leaning over the desk","position":"center frame"}],"setting":{"architecture":"","background":"His bedroom.","lighting":"bright, natural","location":"bedroom/study"},"text_on_screen":[]}},{"t":305,"speech":"I also like the fact that Notability integrates nicely with Google Drive and Dropbox. So, because all of my life is on Google Drive and I want to import a PDF, it's very easy to import straight into Notability from Google Drive.","visual":{"action":"A close-up shot of the iPad screen shows the process of importing a file from Google Drive into Notability.","colors":{"dominant":"white","palette":["white","grey","blue","wood brown"]},"composition":{"angle":"overhead","focus":"focused on the iPad screen","framing":"close-up"},"mood":"functional","objects":[{"color":"white","name":"iPad","position":"center","state":"displaying the import menu"}],"people":[{"age_range":"20-25","clothing":{"accessories":"watch","bottom":"","footwear":"","top":""},"face":"","hair":"","hands":"tapping the screen to navigate menus","pose":"sitting","position":"hands are visible"}],"setting":{"architecture":"","background":"A wooden desk.","lighting":"soft, even","location":"desk"},"text_on_screen":[]}},{"t":320,"speech":"Also, if I'm scanning something, like a document on my iPhone using Scannable, uh the app, I can convert that to a PDF and AirDrop it to my iPad, open straight up in Notability.","visual":{"action":"A split-screen view shows Ali talking on the left and a screen recording of his iPhone on the right. The recording shows him using the Scannable app to scan a document.","colors":{"dominant":"yellow","palette":["pale yellow","grey","white","blue"]},"composition":{"angle":"eye-level","focus":"sharp","framing":"split screen"},"mood":"demonstrative and tech-savvy","objects":[],"people":[{"age_range":"20-25","clothing":{"accessories":"black-rimmed glasses","bottom":"","footwear":"","top":"light grey t-shirt"},"face":"explaining the process","hair":"short, dark, curly","hands":"gesturing","pose":"sitting at a desk","position":"left side of screen"}],"setting":{"architecture":"","background":"His bedroom.","lighting":"bright, natural","location":"bedroom/study"},"text_on_screen":[{"content":"iPhone screen recording","location":"right side of screen","style":"A video overlay showing the Scannable app in action"}]}},{"t":337,"speech":"It's quite a seamless process from getting notes in real life or in PDF format into Notability itself.","visual":{"action":"The iPhone screen recording shows the AirDrop interface, sending the scanned PDF from the phone to the iPad.","colors":{"dominant":"yellow","palette":["pale yellow","grey","white","blue"]},"composition":{"angle":"eye-level","focus":"sharp","framing":"split screen"},"mood":"efficient","objects":[],"people":[{"age_range":"20-25","clothing":{"accessories":"black-rimmed glasses","bottom":"","footwear":"","top":"light grey t-shirt"},"face":"nodding in satisfaction","hair":"short, dark, curly","hands":"gesturing","pose":"sitting at a desk","position":"left side of screen"}],"setting":{"architecture":"","background":"His bedroom.","lighting":"bright, natural","location":"bedroom/study"},"text_on_screen":[{"content":"iPhone screen recording showing AirDrop","location":"right side of screen","style":"A video overlay showing the share sheet and AirDrop"}]}},{"t":350,"speech":"The problem I found with OneNote is that it gives you like an infinite horizontal and vertical canvas, which means your notes can span like a huge amount of space.","visual":{"action":"Ali explains a key difference between Notability and OneNote, criticizing OneNote's infinite canvas.","colors":{"dominant":"yellow","palette":["pale yellow","grey","wood brown","dark green","white"]},"composition":{"angle":"eye-level","focus":"focused on Ali","framing":"medium shot"},"mood":"critical","objects":[],"people":[{"age_range":"20-25","clothing":{"accessories":"black-rimmed glasses","bottom":"","footwear":"","top":"light grey t-shirt"},"face":"explaining","hair":"short, dark, curly","hands":"spreading his hands wide to indicate a large space","pose":"sitting at a desk","position":"center frame"}],"setting":{"architecture":"","background":"His bedroom.","lighting":"bright, natural","location":"bedroom/study"},"text_on_screen":[]}},{"t":365,"speech":"But there's lots of other YouTube videos where people compare GoodNotes with OneNote and a few of the other ones that if you really want to kind of shop for more, you can find them.","visual":{"action":"Ali mentions other note-taking apps and suggests viewers can find comparison videos if they're interested.","colors":{"dominant":"yellow","palette":["pale yellow","grey","wood brown","dark green","white"]},"composition":{"angle":"eye-level","focus":"focused on Ali","framing":"medium shot"},"mood":"helpful and transparent","objects":[],"people":[{"age_range":"20-25","clothing":{"accessories":"black-rimmed glasses","bottom":"","footwear":"","top":"light grey t-shirt"},"face":"speaking to camera","hair":"short, dark, curly","hands":"gesturing","pose":"sitting at a desk","position":"center frame"}],"setting":{"architecture":"","background":"His bedroom.","lighting":"bright, natural","location":"bedroom/study"},"text_on_screen":[]}},{"t":378,"speech":"So, let's start with lectures. Uh, lectures are a staple of all university courses. How do we take notes in lectures?","visual":{"action":"Ali transitions to the main part of the video, focusing on how he takes notes in lectures.","colors":{"dominant":"yellow","palette":["pale yellow","grey","wood brown","dark green","white"]},"composition":{"angle":"eye-level","focus":"focused on Ali","framing":"medium shot"},"mood":"instructional","objects":[],"people":[{"age_range":"20-25","clothing":{"accessories":"black-rimmed glasses","bottom":"","footwear":"","top":"light grey t-shirt"},"face":"focused, asking a rhetorical question","hair":"short, dark, curly","hands":"gesturing","pose":"sitting at a desk","position":"center frame"}],"setting":{"architecture":"","background":"His bedroom.","lighting":"bright, natural","location":"bedroom/study"},"text_on_screen":[]}},{"t":390,"speech":"So, a couple of weeks ago, we had a revision lecture for radiology that I am going to show you. And I think that illustrates some of these some of these principles nicely.","visual":{"action":"Ali introduces a specific example of his lecture notes from a radiology class.","colors":{"dominant":"yellow","palette":["pale yellow","grey","wood brown","dark green","white"]},"composition":{"angle":"eye-level","focus":"focused on Ali","framing":"medium shot"},"mood":"demonstrative","objects":[{"color":"white","name":"iPad","position":"on the desk","state":"being opened to a specific note"}],"people":[{"age_range":"20-25","clothing":{"accessories":"black-rimmed glasses","bottom":"","footwear":"","top":"light grey t-shirt"},"face":"speaking to camera","hair":"short, dark, curly","hands":"tapping on his iPad","pose":"sitting at a desk","position":"center frame"}],"setting":{"architecture":"","background":"His bedroom.","lighting":"bright, natural","location":"bedroom/study"},"text_on_screen":[]}},{"t":400,"speech":"So, as the lecturer was saying important things, I was writing stuff down. This is what writing stuff looks like.","visual":{"action":"A screen recording of the iPad shows handwritten notes on a lined page. He writes 'This is what writing stuff looks like' to demonstrate.","colors":{"dominant":"white","palette":["white","light grey","dark blue","light green","red"]},"composition":{"angle":"overhead","focus":"sharp","framing":"full screen"},"mood":"demonstrative","objects":[],"people":[],"setting":{"architecture":"","background":"Digital lined paper in Notability app.","lighting":"digital, bright","location":"Notability app"},"text_on_screen":[{"content":"Revision radiology for finals","location":"top left","style":"handwritten"}]}},{"t":410,"speech":"So I was doing all of that as the lecture was happening and that actually just generally helps me be more engaged with lectures. Otherwise, I tend to find that I fall asleep in lectures. It's very easy to fall asleep.","visual":{"action":"Ali explains that actively taking handwritten notes on the iPad helps him stay engaged and awake during lectures.","colors":{"dominant":"yellow","palette":["pale yellow","grey","wood brown","dark green","white"]},"composition":{"angle":"eye-level","focus":"focused on Ali","framing":"medium shot"},"mood":"relatable and honest","objects":[],"people":[{"age_range":"20-25","clothing":{"accessories":"black-rimmed glasses","bottom":"","footwear":"","top":"light grey t-shirt"},"face":"smiling slightly, self-deprecating","hair":"short, dark, curly","hands":"gesturing","pose":"sitting at a desk","position":"center frame"}],"setting":{"architecture":"","background":"His bedroom.","lighting":"bright, natural","location":"bedroom/study"},"text_on_screen":[]}},{"t":425,"speech":"So, as the lecturer was putting up uh chest X-rays and stuff on the PowerPoint, I was kind of getting my iPad up, taking a photo of it, and then putting it um into into Notability and then highlighting them.","visual":{"action":"Ali demonstrates how he takes a photo of a lecture slide with his iPad and inserts it directly into his notes.","colors":{"dominant":"yellow","palette":["pale yellow","grey","wood brown","dark green","white"]},"composition":{"angle":"eye-level","focus":"focused on Ali","framing":"medium shot"},"mood":"practical and resourceful","objects":[{"color":"white","name":"iPad","position":"held up as if taking a photo","state":"in use"}],"people":[{"age_range":"20-25","clothing":{"accessories":"black-rimmed glasses","bottom":"","footwear":"","top":"light grey t-shirt"},"face":"focused on demonstrating the action","hair":"short, dark, curly","hands":"holding the iPad and mimicking taking a picture","pose":"sitting at a desk","position":"center frame"}],"setting":{"architecture":"","background":"His bedroom.","lighting":"bright, natural","location":"bedroom/study"},"text_on_screen":[]}},{"t":435,"speech":"we had a class yesterday, actually, uh where we had a handout instead, and it was like a small group session. There wasn't really a PowerPoint. It was just a handout and we were working through the handout.","visual":{"action":"Ali introduces another use case: dealing with physical handouts in a small group session.","colors":{"dominant":"yellow","palette":["pale yellow","grey","wood brown","dark green","white"]},"composition":{"angle":"eye-level","focus":"focused on Ali","framing":"medium shot"},"mood":"setting up a new scenario","objects":[],"people":[{"age_range":"20-25","clothing":{"accessories":"black-rimmed glasses","bottom":"","footwear":"","top":"light grey t-shirt"},"face":"explaining","hair":"short, dark, curly","hands":"gesturing","pose":"sitting at a desk","position":"center frame"}],"setting":{"architecture":"","background":"His bedroom.","lighting":"bright, natural","location":"bedroom/study"},"text_on_screen":[]}},{"t":445,"speech":"So, what I did is I used my phone. I used the Scannable app, which you can get for free on a phone, to scan in the little bits of paper, the handout that we got.","visual":{"action":"Ali holds his phone and explains how he uses the Scannable app to digitize the physical handout.","colors":{"dominant":"yellow","palette":["pale yellow","grey","black","white"]},"composition":{"angle":"eye-level","focus":"focused on Ali","framing":"medium shot with a screen recording overlay"},"mood":"demonstrative","objects":[{"color":"black","name":"iPhone","position":"held in his hands","state":"being demonstrated"}],"people":[{"age_range":"20-25","clothing":{"accessories":"black-rimmed glasses","bottom":"","footwear":"","top":"light grey t-shirt"},"face":"explaining the process","hair":"short, dark, curly","hands":"holding his phone","pose":"sitting at a desk","position":"left side of screen"}],"setting":{"architecture":"","background":"His bedroom.","lighting":"bright, natural","location":"bedroom/study"},"text_on_screen":[{"content":"iPhone screen recording of Scannable app","location":"right side of screen","style":"video overlay"}]}},{"t":458,"speech":"And then I added the the PDF that I scanned in. So, as you can see, this is the handout. There are some questions here, and I was able to annotate and kind of fill in the worksheet as we were going along in our session.","visual":{"action":"A screen recording shows the scanned PDF handout imported into Notability. Ali has handwritten answers and annotations on the digital document.","colors":{"dominant":"white","palette":["white","black","teal"]},"composition":{"angle":"overhead","focus":"sharp","framing":"full screen"},"mood":"productive","objects":[],"people":[],"setting":{"architecture":"","background":"Digital document in Notability app.","lighting":"digital, bright","location":"Notability app"},"text_on_screen":[{"content":"FLUIDS AND BIOCHEMISTRY FOR THE FOUNDATION DOCTOR","location":"top of document","style":"typed text on the scanned PDF"}]}},{"t":472,"speech":"Thirdly, I find that the iPad is really good for making notes in real life, especially in clinical scenarios. So, let's say I'm observing a GP consultation and and the patient has mentioned something,","visual":{"action":"Ali introduces the third major use case: taking notes in a professional, clinical environment.","colors":{"dominant":"yellow","palette":["pale yellow","grey","wood brown","dark green","white"]},"composition":{"angle":"eye-level","focus":"focused on Ali","framing":"medium shot"},"mood":"professional and practical","objects":[],"people":[{"age_range":"20-25","clothing":{"accessories":"black-rimmed glasses","bottom":"","footwear":"","top":"light grey t-shirt"},"face":"speaking earnestly","hair":"short, dark, curly","hands":"gesturing","pose":"sitting at a desk","position":"center frame"}],"setting":{"architecture":"","background":"His bedroom.","lighting":"bright, natural","location":"bedroom/study"},"text_on_screen":[]}},{"t":483,"speech":"I don't really know what Ebstein's anomaly is. So, there's a very easy day to get easy way to get around that. I can just open up Safari in split-screen mode.","visual":{"action":"Ali demonstrates using the iPad's split-screen feature to look up information in Safari while keeping his notes open in Notability.","colors":{"dominant":"wood brown","palette":["wood brown","white","grey","skin tone"]},"composition":{"angle":"overhead","focus":"focused on the iPad screen","framing":"close-up"},"mood":"efficient and resourceful","objects":[{"color":"white","name":"iPad","position":"center","state":"showing split-screen mode"}],"people":[{"age_range":"20-25","clothing":{"accessories":"watch","bottom":"","footwear":"","top":""},"face":"","hair":"","hands":"swiping and tapping to activate split-screen","pose":"sitting","position":"hands are visible"}],"setting":{"architecture":"","background":"A wooden desk.","lighting":"soft, even","location":"desk"},"text_on_screen":[]}},{"t":494,"speech":"And then I get the results straight there. Ebstein's anomaly is a congenital heart defect in which the septal and posterior leaflets of the tricuspid valve are displaced towards the apex of the right ventricle of the heart.","visual":{"action":"A screen recording shows the split-screen view with a Google search result for 'Ebstein's anomaly' on the left and a blank note on the right. Ali reads the definition from the screen.","colors":{"dominant":"white","palette":["white","blue","grey","black"]},"composition":{"angle":"overhead","focus":"sharp","framing":"full screen"},"mood":"informative","objects":[],"people":[],"setting":{"architecture":"","background":"Digital interface of iPadOS.","lighting":"digital, bright","location":"iPad screen recording"},"text_on_screen":[{"content":"\"Ebstein's anomaly is a congenital heart defect...\"","location":"left side of screen (Safari)","style":"typed text"}]}},{"t":505,"speech":"And the really cool thing is you can just like drag and drop. You can drag and drop text. Let's say I want this image, I can just grab it, drop it straight into Notability. What a time to be alive. This is absolutely incredible.","visual":{"action":"In the split-screen recording, Ali demonstrates dragging text and an image from the Safari window on the left and dropping them directly into the Notability note on the right.","colors":{"dominant":"white","palette":["white","blue","grey","black"]},"composition":{"angle":"overhead","focus":"sharp","framing":"full screen"},"mood":"amazed and excited","objects":[],"people":[],"setting":{"architecture":"","background":"Digital interface of iPadOS.","lighting":"digital, bright","location":"iPad screen recording"},"text_on_screen":[]}},{"t":520,"speech":"And if I want, I can just kind of draw a box around it. I can like highlight stuff. I can like change the color and draw another picture.","visual":{"action":"Ali demonstrates annotating the content he just dragged and dropped into Notability, drawing boxes and highlighting.","colors":{"dominant":"yellow","palette":["pale yellow","grey","wood brown","dark green","white"]},"composition":{"angle":"eye-level","focus":"focused on Ali","framing":"medium shot"},"mood":"creative","objects":[{"color":"white","name":"iPad","position":"on the desk","state":"being annotated"}],"people":[{"age_range":"20-25","clothing":{"accessories":"black-rimmed glasses","bottom":"","footwear":"","top":"light grey t-shirt"},"face":"smiling, engaged","hair":"short, dark, curly","hands":"using the Apple Pencil on the iPad","pose":"sitting at a desk","position":"center frame"}],"setting":{"architecture":"","background":"His bedroom.","lighting":"bright, natural","location":"bedroom/study"},"text_on_screen":[]}},{"t":535,"speech":"Having an iPad there is so much better than getting your phone out because getting your phone out means that everyone thinks you're like texting on your phone and it just looks really rude having a phone out.","visual":{"action":"Ali picks up his phone and contrasts its unprofessional appearance in a clinical setting with the more appropriate look of an iPad.","colors":{"dominant":"yellow","palette":["pale yellow","grey","black","white"]},"composition":{"angle":"eye-level","focus":"focused on Ali","framing":"medium shot"},"mood":"advisory","objects":[{"color":"black","name":"iPhone","position":"held in his hands","state":"being used as a prop"}],"people":[{"age_range":"20-25","clothing":{"accessories":"black-rimmed glasses","bottom":"","footwear":"","top":"light grey t-shirt"},"face":"making a point, slightly disapproving expression","hair":"short, dark, curly","hands":"holding and gesturing with his phone","pose":"sitting at a desk","position":"center frame"}],"setting":{"architecture":"","background":"His bedroom.","lighting":"bright, natural","location":"bedroom/study"},"text_on_screen":[]}},{"t":550,"speech":"So what else is Notability good for? Um, it's really good for annotating PDFs of books and just kind of having there as a store of various PDFs.","visual":{"action":"Ali introduces another use case: annotating PDF textbooks.","colors":{"dominant":"yellow","palette":["pale yellow","grey","wood brown","dark green","white"]},"composition":{"angle":"eye-level","focus":"focused on Ali","framing":"medium shot"},"mood":"informative","objects":[],"people":[{"age_range":"20-25","clothing":{"accessories":"black-rimmed glasses","bottom":"","footwear":"","top":"light grey t-shirt"},"face":"explaining","hair":"short, dark, curly","hands":"gesturing","pose":"sitting at a desk","position":"center frame"}],"setting":{"architecture":"","background":"His bedroom.","lighting":"bright, natural","location":"bedroom/study"},"text_on_screen":[]}},{"t":563,"speech":"On the note of annotating PDFs, I've also recently started to learn how to read music on the piano. So, I downloaded loads of sheet music and I have it like in a sheet music folder organized by, you know, classical, pop, Disney, Yiruma, music from musicals.","visual":{"action":"Ali shows his Notability screen again, this time navigating to a 'Music' folder with various sub-folders for different genres of sheet music.","colors":{"dominant":"grey","palette":["white","grey","blue","red","skin tone"]},"composition":{"angle":"eye-level","focus":"sharp, focused on both Ali and the screen recording","framing":"medium shot with a screen recording overlay"},"mood":"personal and interesting","objects":[],"people":[{"age_range":"20-25","clothing":{"accessories":"black-rimmed glasses","bottom":"","footwear":"","top":"light grey t-shirt"},"face":"smiling, sharing a hobby","hair":"short, dark, curly","hands":"gesturing towards the screen recording","pose":"sitting at a desk","position":"left of center"}],"setting":{"architecture":"","background":"His bedroom.","lighting":"bright, natural","location":"bedroom/study"},"text_on_screen":[{"content":"Notability App Interface showing music folders","location":"right side of screen","style":"Screen recording"}]}},{"t":580,"speech":"and because I'm not very good at reading music, I've been able to annotate stuff using Notability. So, I can like write down the names of the notes, write down the names of the chords, and that helps me kind of learn a bit better.","visual":{"action":"A close-up of the iPad screen shows a page of sheet music. Ali demonstrates how he writes the names of notes and chords directly onto the digital sheet music.","colors":{"dominant":"white","palette":["white","black","red","wood brown"]},"composition":{"angle":"overhead","focus":"focused on the iPad screen","framing":"close-up"},"mood":"educational and practical","objects":[{"color":"white","name":"iPad","position":"center","state":"displaying sheet music"},{"color":"white","name":"Apple Pencil","position":"center","state":"annotating the music"}],"people":[],"setting":{"architecture":"","background":"A wooden desk.","lighting":"soft, even","location":"desk"},"text_on_screen":[]}},{"t":595,"speech":"And finally, I use it as a general note-taking app just for life in general. So, if I ever have an idea for a YouTube video, I would just kind of make a new document about it.","visual":{"action":"Ali explains his final use case: general life planning and brainstorming, using his YouTube video ideas as an example.","colors":{"dominant":"yellow","palette":["pale yellow","grey","wood brown","dark green","white"]},"composition":{"angle":"eye-level","focus":"focused on Ali","framing":"medium shot"},"mood":"organized","objects":[],"people":[{"age_range":"20-25","clothing":{"accessories":"black-rimmed glasses","bottom":"","footwear":"","top":"light grey t-shirt"},"face":"speaking","hair":"short, dark, curly","hands":"gesturing","pose":"sitting at a desk","position":"center frame"}],"setting":{"architecture":"","background":"His bedroom.","lighting":"bright, natural","location":"bedroom/study"},"text_on_screen":[]}},{"t":605,"speech":"This is the one that I made about this very video. I had the idea on the 24th of February 2018, apparently.","visual":{"action":"A screen recording shows a handwritten mind map and outline for the current video, demonstrating his planning process.","colors":{"dominant":"white","palette":["white","light grey","teal","red","blue"]},"composition":{"angle":"overhead","focus":"sharp","framing":"full screen"},"mood":"meta and organized","objects":[],"people":[],"setting":{"architecture":"","background":"Digital lined paper in Notability app.","lighting":"digital, bright","location":"Notability app"},"text_on_screen":[{"content":"iPad Pro - how I take notes in medical school?","location":"top center","style":"handwritten and highlighted"}]}},{"t":615,"speech":"And the reason I like handwriting notes is that it like encourages me to make more notes. Normally, I just type stuff out, but typing stuff out is quite boring, whereas, you know, putting up a plan for a a YouTube video together by like, you know, writing stuff down and doing arrows and doing boxes","visual":{"action":"Ali explains that the creative freedom of handwriting, even digitally, motivates him to plan and take more notes than typing would.","colors":{"dominant":"yellow","palette":["pale yellow","grey","wood brown","dark green","white"]},"composition":{"angle":"eye-level","focus":"focused on Ali","framing":"medium shot"},"mood":"introspective and motivational","objects":[],"people":[{"age_range":"20-25","clothing":{"accessories":"black-rimmed glasses","bottom":"","footwear":"","top":"light grey t-shirt"},"face":"enthusiastic","hair":"short, dark, curly","hands":"mimicking drawing and writing","pose":"sitting at a desk","position":"center frame"}],"setting":{"architecture":"","background":"His bedroom.","lighting":"bright, natural","location":"bedroom/study"},"text_on_screen":[]}},{"t":630,"speech":"So, yeah, those were some of the ways that I use Notability. Um, I hope you found that useful. I think that brings us to the end of the video now.","visual":{"action":"Ali begins to wrap up the video, summarizing the use cases he has demonstrated.","colors":{"dominant":"yellow","palette":["pale yellow","grey","wood brown","dark green","white"]},"composition":{"angle":"eye-level","focus":"focused on Ali","framing":"medium shot"},"mood":"concluding","objects":[],"people":[{"age_range":"20-25","clothing":{"accessories":"black-rimmed glasses","bottom":"","footwear":"","top":"light grey t-shirt"},"face":"friendly, smiling","hair":"short, dark, curly","hands":"clasped in front of him","pose":"sitting at a desk","position":"center frame"}],"setting":{"architecture":"","background":"His bedroom.","lighting":"bright, natural","location":"bedroom/study"},"text_on_screen":[]}},{"t":645,"speech":"If you like the video, please give it a thumbs up. If you haven't subscribed to the channel, please consider doing so. Have a lovely day, and I'll see you in the next video. Bye-bye.","visual":{"action":"Ali delivers his outro and call to action, smiling and waving at the camera.","colors":{"dominant":"yellow","palette":["pale yellow","grey","wood brown","dark green","white"]},"composition":{"angle":"eye-level","focus":"focused on Ali","framing":"medium shot"},"mood":"friendly and cheerful","objects":[],"people":[{"age_range":"20-25","clothing":{"accessories":"black-rimmed glasses","bottom":"","footwear":"","top":"light grey t-shirt"},"face":"big smile","hair":"short, dark, curly","hands":"waving goodbye to the camera","pose":"sitting at a desk","position":"center frame"}],"setting":{"architecture":"","background":"His bedroom.","lighting":"bright, natural","location":"bedroom/study"},"text_on_screen":[]}}],"created_at":"2026-04-11 17:27:32","processed_at":"2026-04-11 17:31:13","view_count":3,"thumbnail":"/data/videos/85d08b57-30df-4a0d-8f94-97eae5f08f2b/thumbnail.jpg","video":"/data/videos/85d08b57-30df-4a0d-8f94-97eae5f08f2b/web.mp4","urls":{"page":"/v/how-i-take-notes-on-my-ipad-pro-in-medical-school-cambridge-university-medical-s","api":"/api/v1/videos/how-i-take-notes-on-my-ipad-pro-in-medical-school-cambridge-university-medical-s","timeline_file":"/data/videos/85d08b57-30df-4a0d-8f94-97eae5f08f2b/timeline.json"}}