Dear you,

I really like Business Insider because they have national news and finance news and some non-news articles. However, the biggest thing I like about Business Insider is the fact that they don't typically have 5-10 articles for the same story. I've seen other major news sources do that and it bugs me.

For local news, I prefer KSL. I probably got that from my dad, but I've become so familiar with the site. They also have KSL Classifieds, which is great! Sometimes I flip the free stuff on the classifieds. For example, last week I got a free, non-working RV and I sold it for $200. How cool is that?

-Sunday Night Banter

Dear nameless,

My phone's news app, google news, and lots and lots of late night talk shows.

-guppy of doom

Dear you,

Word of mouth?

I really need to keep up with the news more...

~Anathema

Dear You,

I like email newsletters because they generally sum up the biggest stories in a few lines, so it's easy to read them fast and get an idea of what's going on. Personally, I subscribe to The New York Time's Morning Briefing, as well as CNN's 5 Things. If I'm going to a website to read the news, though, I like the BBC and Al Jazeera, especially because they often have a more global focus than the NYT and CNN, and will run stories on issues that more US-centric sites miss.

-Alta

Dear you,

It's a real thing.

My roommate got a long talk from her bishop when she was 12 and, when asking about the law of chastity, he asked if she masturbated. Well, my sweet, innocent friend had no idea what that even was, so she asked, and the bishop went on for several minutes describing various sexual sins in detail. Needless to say my roommate was permanently scarred by that occasion.

I was never asked about masturbation in a bishop's interview until I went to BYU, and when my bishop asked if I did it, saw my confused face, asked if I knew what it was, heard my "well I think I do," he just paused and said if I wasn't sure what it was then I wasn't doing it. I'm grateful I didn't get asked that question when I was younger, but it has happened to multiple children.

One of the biggest concerns that people have, though, is that these interviews normalize these kinds of conversations for kids. They'll come to think it's okay to be alone in a room with an adult they may not know very well and talk about sexual things with them. This can be used as grooming behavior.

Now, I'm not trying to argue against youth worthiness interviews. I see the merit of having them, but I also see the damages they can (and have) caused. It's important for some kids to be alone with their bishop because they would never open up to them about personal problems if a parent was there. But this risks bishops taking advantage of these situations (which has happened). But it's crucial to realize that this is a legitimate argument and position to take, and it's NOT people just "taking advantage of public ignorance to smear the Church." 

-guppy of doom

Dear Concerning,

The Church released a statement about this. Interestingly, the statement even includes the name of the person who has created a site and a movement to make a change to the interview process. I looked up Sam Young (the person referenced in the statement) and his website makes many statements like you heard about "interrogations" and such. The official statement points to the recent changes to the interview process of allowing parents to sit in interviews with their children to say that these kinds of concerns are being addressed and that the Church feels like it takes these issues seriously. The statement sounds to me like the Church feels like it is doing enough to prevent these kinds of issues in the future but that the Church is always looking for the best ways to protect children and help their testimonies grow.

-Spectre

Dear De Nada,

My first tip is to not take notes on your laptop. It is so much easier to get distracted. Stick to pen and paper. I also feel like that for me, the act of writing down something physically helps me remember it more than if I had typed them on a computer.

My second tip is to do the assigned reading before you get to class. You will get a lot more out of your classes if you come prepared. I would also recommend taking notes of your pre-class reading.

My third tip is the most important of the three. At the end of each day, review the notes from your classes that day. Then, write down a summary of the most important concepts. This summary should be organized, easy to read, and only contain the most important info. Ideally each day you should only have 1 sheet of paper as your summary. Keep these summaries in order in a binder for each of your classes

The purpose of the notes summary is twofold. The first thing it does for you is that reviewing and summarizing the notes helps you retain what you learn. The second point is that your notes summaries will serve as your study guides. I can't emphasize enough how helpful this is. It makes it a lot quicker to review for tests. Instead of going back through all the readings and notes you can instead focus on the shorter and more important notes summaries.

Hope this helps! Good luck with your first semester!

Peace,

Tipperary

Dear Gracias,

Apparently Cornell notes are helpful for a lot of people, even though I personally never liked them all that much. Personally I just use a lot of bullet points and sub-bullet points, because like Sheebs says below, using good headings and sub-headings is super important for organization. This makes it easier both to study for the test later, and also helps you group like things together, which can be useful for learning. 

I would also add, don't write down every single word the professor says. A lot of people get sucked into doing that, but often that just turns into frantically writing stuff down without really paying attention to what you're writing. Likewise, don't just copy the powerpoint slides word for word. Instead, actively listen to what the professor is saying, and then write down the main points in your own words. I don't want to go to the trouble of finding them right now, but studies have been done showing this to be a more effective way to actually learn and remember new material than simply copying a professor's stream of consciousness word for word. If you really like having access to the powerpoint slides, though, a lot of professors post them online, and will say so the first day of class, so listen to see if any of your teachers do that, and then look up the slides if that's important to you.

Like Tipperary said, definitely do the pre-class readings before coming to class. Even if there's no homework or reading quiz or anything, it helps you get a lot more out of lecture if you've done the reading first. And if it's a class that has a lot of supplemental readings that aren't necessarily gone over in tons of detail in class, definitely take notes on the readings, because often they'll still show up on the test (American Heritage is like this, as well as a lot of history and humanities classes).

If you're going to BYU, you can also take ST DEV 109, Effective Study and Learning, which, in its own words, is about "learning to learn: motivation, time management, reading, listening, notetaking, test preparation, and memorizing." I never took it, but it does sound like it would probably be helpful for new college students.

-Alta

Dear person, 

From my perspective, the purpose of taking notes is twofold:

First, it provides a record of what was discussed in class. As far as record-keeping is concerned, it is generally advisable to have a system of headings and subheadings. For example:

-all reptiles are cold blooded
-reptiles lay eggs
-reptiles do not have forebrains
-reptiles eat all kinds of food
-lizards like to eat beans
-lizards are nice
-lizards are illiterate
-turtles have shells
-land turtles are blue
-land turtles like to eat cupcakes
-land turtles like to live in creeks and streams and rivers
-land turtles are empathetic
-sea turtles are green
-sea turtles are all named Squirtle
-sea turtles can be found in salt water

is more time-consuming to write and confusing to read than

Reptiles
-cold blooded
-lay eggs
-do not have forebrains
-eat all kinds of food
   Lizards
    -like to eat beans
    -nice
    -illiterate
   Turtles
    -have shells
       Land Turtles
        -blue
        -like to eat cupcakes
        -live in creeks and streams and rivers
        -empathetic
       Sea Turtles
        -green
        -all named Squirtle
        -can be found in salt water

I like bolding things if I am typing stuff up. Indentation and underlines can work well to set them apart if you are handwriting (which is, as Tipperary says, highly advisable). Some people like to take notes by hand and then type them up later so they are more legible and easier to format. That's also a good way of reviewing.

Second, note-taking is a means for you to interact with what you are seeing and hearing. Instead of being passive, you are actively listening to the lecturer. You are trying to tell what is important and what is not and you are trying to track your own understanding (i.e., asking yourself questions like, "Did I understand what was just said? How would that apply to ___ situation?" etc.). This is the real challenge for a lot of people. In their anxiety to take totally comprehensive notes, their ability to filter out the important from the unimportant and be aware of their own understanding is diminished.

In my experience, the second function of notetaking is most important. If I take notes in class and do a good job, then I do well on evaluations of my knowledge (tests, essays, etc.). If I'm mindlessly writing things down and not really listening actively, the notes don't do me any good.

People have pretty different experiences in lectures, though. Make sure you thoughtfully try different things until you find one that works for you.

-Sheebs

Dear Gracias,

Of course there are solid note-taking standards that are helpful, that other writers mention above, like using sub-bullet points and taking notes on paper instead of on a laptop.

But I find the way I review my notes in preparation for tests or papers is much more crucial to my success than the manner in which I've taken notes. For example, it's much better to review what you've learned frequently instead of trying to cram in as much knowledge as possible the night before your midterm. Instead, I would suggest reviewing all your notes at the end of each week. You could do it every day, as Tipperary suggests, but I found that for me personally, at the end of a full week I had a better idea which particular facts or ideas would have the most influence on the rest of the class, or which topics were most likely to come up in future assessments.

When I reviewed my notes, I would take a few differently colored highlighters and highlight particular notes or sections that seemed most relevant. That way, when exam time was approaching and I was studying more thoroughly, I already had an idea of the most important things to know. If I was being particularly diligent I would use the different colors to differentiate between different ideas. For instance, because my degree is in history I might use a pink highlighter for aspects of cultural history or yellow for military history, or green for France and blue for England. This would be especially helpful if I were trying to plan ahead for potential essay questions, so I could easily find information on one topic throughout all my notes for the course.

This may be unique to me, because maybe I'm a more visual learner than most. But I also found that reviewing and studying my notes in this manner helped me because I could recall that a particular note or fact I was struggling to remember was on the lefthand page of my notebook, and highlighted in pink. For some reason if I could picture where I had jotted down that particular idea, or what other important ideas might be surrounding it, I had a much easier time recalling those facts or figures.

If you want to be especially thorough, at the end of each class you could write a summary paragraph about how what you learned that particular day relates to the course as a whole. You should answer basic questions like "Why is this important" and "what about this particular topic will be crucial to remember even after this course ends?" I wish I had spent more time thinking about the long-term implications of my studies instead of focusing on getting through a particular course or semester, because while I retain the skills for writing and evaluation that my degree in history bequeathed to me, I've forgotten lots of the minutiae and specific facts that make the study of history so interesting.

Love,

Luciana

Dear Grace,

I've found that my note-taking methods tend to be different for different subjects.

For math classes, I copy down every single thing written on the whiteboard, regardless of the information being in my textbook or not. I don't do this for later reference (I very, very rarely read my notes after lecture and instead rely on the textbook), but because for some reason writing things down helps my mind make connections; often I won't understand what is being said in a math lecture until the words flow through my pencil. So note taking is essentially just an aid to my listening comprehension in this case.

For econ classes, it's important to write down example problems that are gone over in class, as these tend to show up multiple times in both the homework and tests, and econ textbooks are generally not great when it comes to examples.

For all other classes... it's been years since I've had to take notes for other subjects, unless you count religion. So, I can't really remember how I took notes, but whatever system I used apparently worked for me.

As far as specific notebooks to use for note taking go, I just get the cheapest notebooks sold at the BYU Store.

~Anathema 

Dear Aziraphale,

I wish I had words that would make this situation all right. But all I have are suggestions and thoughts on what has worked for me.

First and foremost, if you really just need someone to talk to, my email (anathema@theboard.byu.edu) is always open. Second, it sounds like vulnerability is a big barrier for you. Sometimes the only way we can get a connection that's worthwhile is by opening ourselves up, and risking being judged and hurt. It would be nice if there was a risk-free way, but that's not always the case.

I've found in my life that the people I've been able to form the deepest bonds with are the people I've opened up to, even when it was scary. But beyond that, there needs to be a certain level of connection that I instinctively feel towards the person; unfortunately, meeting someone where such a connection is present seems to be up to luck.

I'm sorry I can't offer anything more, but know that my best wishes go out to you.

~Anathema

Dear you,

I saw a truck near campus for a company that makes traditional hand crafted wooden caskets. Some student probably works for the company and had the company car parked outside their apartment, but it still seemed really weird seeing an advertisement for hand crafted caskets in a neighborhood with a median age of like 23 or something.

Peace,

Tipperary

Dear you,

Here's three gems I encountered recently in Gabon and Congo:

Apparently a Belgian-Congolese friend of mine used the 'naise when she was little.
And it inspired me to pen the following inspirational poem:

"Me and my friend bought some mayonnaise
It was enough for days
So be amazed—"

Oh, never mind. Moving on:

Snail slime? SNAIL YEAH!

Our last entrant gets better the longer one gazes upon it with awe. It may even be worthy of the great CATS.

Indeed. Yes and hello, product!

Need I say more, Central Africa?

Spoiler alert: it did.

Suerte,

--Ardilla Feroz

Dear URL,

I have. In fact, I remember when that story first broke. They used to have the whole video on that news site, as well as a map you could download to help you get there. I still have a copy of that map, so here you go:

I actually quite recommend you visit, if only for one reason: there is now a Pokéstop on the Center of Utah.

-A Writer