PitchingFan posted:hokieone posted:A hand-held recorder, digital or tape (I still use cassettes). Recording a lecture (step one) and listening to it a second time (step 2) to fill in your notes is a great study method. I did this in college and law school. Step 3 was to make an outline from the notes and by then, the material is mastered. I rarely had to study for exams because after making the outline, a little review brought it all back. Just a thought, might not be for everyone.
I still have one but my son laughed at me and said "Dad, that's what they make i-phone voice recorder for." We are getting old.
One related gift is an app called Otter. It's a voice recorder for iphone or android, but it also provides a fairly accurate transcription of your notes. It's free for up to 600 minutes a month or $10 for like 6,000 minutes.
Another gift I'm getting my kids is instant ink for their printers so they will stop calling me and asking what ink cartridges they need. Wasn't a big deal freshman year when there were college-owned printers around the dorms, but now that they are both living off campus, they have their own printers and want to print sometimes.