Did you get the notes?

A classic dilemma:  you've missed a class, the instructor has not entered the millenium and posted outlines/notes online, and you're not sure who in class can give you the notes. Ignoring the social factor for the moment, which of course is paramount in the sense that it may be an ice-breaker to meet someone or simply an easy solution to ask a friend, the question is who can give you the best notes. This may seem elementary, but the paradox here is that the best students take the worst notes.  While those notes may be well-organized, they tend to be sparse, as the best students are mentally involved.  They listen, jotting down conclusions, pertinent examples, and occasionally original thoughts not directly transmitted by the instructor. Copying these notes probably won't be particularly helpful.

Conversely, poorer students view notes as transcripts of the class, struggling to write down everything the instructor says.  The information typically goes in the ear, down through the arm, and onto the paper with precious little internalization.  These students often have the illusion that if something is not understood, it will be when the notes are reviewed later that day or in all probability the night before the exam.  So what this usually means is that the more a student writes during a lecture, the less s/he understands the lecture.

The answer to the paradox, then, is to get the notes from a dumb kid (to be more charitable, an earnest but struggling student), as though s/he understands the lecture less, s/he has taken more copious notes.  Of course, you may need your Captain Midnight decoder to decipher them.