Scribba
Business classes come in two kinds, and many courses mix them. There's the lecture, where a professor teaches frameworks: SWOT, Porter's five forces, the 4 Ps, segmentation and positioning. And there's the case discussion, where the class spends an hour arguing about what one company should do next. The lecture gives you the tools. The case is where you're graded on using them.
So your notes have two jobs. They need to hold the frameworks clearly enough to apply from memory, and they need to capture a messy discussion well enough to learn from it. Here's how to handle both.
Prepare a case before class
In a case course, the notes that matter most are the ones you write before class. A cold call on a case you skimmed is hard to recover from, and participation is often a big part of the grade.
Read the case once quickly, then a second time with a pen. On a single prep page, write:
- The decision maker and the decision. Who has to choose, and what's the choice? "Should the CEO enter the Canadian market this year?"
- The options. Usually two to four, even if the case doesn't list them.
- The key facts and numbers. Pull them from the exhibits, not just the text, and do the quick math: margins, growth, break-even.
- Your recommendation, in one sentence, with two or three reasons.
- The strongest argument against it. Someone will make it in class.
If your cases come as PDFs, import them into the course notebook and mark them up directly. In Scribba, the text of an imported PDF is searchable, so you can find a figure from an exhibit later without paging through. See annotate lecture slides on iPad for how importing works.
Map the discussion, don't transcribe it
During a case discussion, you can't write everything, and you'll be talking part of the time. Aim for a map instead of a transcript.
- Split the page. Arguments for each option on the left, arguments against on the right. Add classmates' points as short phrases.
- Copy the professor's board. Case professors often build the discussion on the board in columns or a diagram. That structure is usually the lesson.
- Mark the turn. There's often a moment when the professor pushes the class toward an insight. Star it.
- Note what you said and how it landed, in a few words. It helps you prepare better next time.
The last ten minutes matter most. Professors often wrap up with what the real company did and the general lesson. Leave room at the bottom of the page for it. For more on discussion-heavy classes, see how to take notes in a seminar.
Draw frameworks as diagrams
Frameworks are easier to remember and apply as pictures than as lists. Draw each one cleanly on its own page, then reuse the same shape every time you apply it.
- SWOT: a 2×2 grid. Strengths and weaknesses on top (internal), opportunities and threats below (external).
- Five forces: a box in the center for rivalry among competitors, with four boxes around it for buyers, suppliers, new entrants and substitutes, joined by arrows.
- Positioning: a perceptual map, two axes crossing in the middle (say, price and quality) with competitors placed as dots.
- The marketing mix: four boxes for product, price, place and promotion.
Scribba's Coordinate Plane paper has x and y axes through the center, which makes a ready-made perceptual map. Label each axis with the attributes you're comparing. For grids and box diagrams, hold the Apple Pencil still at the end of a stroke and it snaps into a straight line, rectangle or arrow, so a five forces diagram takes a minute. You can change the paper of a single page from the page sidebar, so framework pages can sit right among your lecture pages.
Tip: draw a blank framework once, then duplicate that page from the page sidebar each time you apply it to a new case. Same layout every time, which makes comparing cases easy.
Keep a deck of terms
Marketing and management courses have many terms that sound alike: market share and market penetration, segmentation and targeting, brand equity and brand awareness. Multiple choice exams test exactly those distinctions.
Write each term on Scribba's Vocabulary paper, with a definition and a real company example in the second column. Scribba reads your handwriting and turns each row into a flashcard; review and fix any misread words first. This doesn't need Apple Intelligence. More in flashcards from handwritten notes.
Group projects and meetings
Business programs lean on group work. Scribba has no shared notebooks, so treat it as your own record of the project. The Meeting Notes paper has DATE, TIME, LOCATION and ATTENDEES fields, a numbered AGENDA, NOTES, and ACTION ITEMS with an OWNER column, which covers a typical group meeting. To send notes to teammates, share a page as an image or export pages as a PDF from the page sidebar. When it's your turn to present, see presentation notes on iPad.
Recording lectures and discussions
A framework lecture is a good fit for recording, if your professor allows it. In Scribba, every stroke you write is linked to that moment in the recording, so tapping a framework you drew plays the explanation. Case discussions are different: classmates are speaking, so ask first and check your school's policy. See is it OK to record lectures?
On an iPad that supports Apple Intelligence, with it turned on, Scribba can write the key points of a recorded lecture after class and show what your notes left out. See AI key points from lectures.
Frequently asked questions
How do I prepare for a cold call in a case class?
Know the decision, the options, two or three key numbers and your recommendation. Put them on one prep page you can glance at in class.
Can my group work in the same Scribba notebook?
No. Scribba doesn't have shared notebooks. Share pages as images or PDFs, and keep the group's shared document in whatever tool your team uses.
What paper is best for marketing frameworks?
Coordinate Plane paper for perceptual maps, grid or dot grid for 2×2 grids and box diagrams, and ruled paper for lecture notes.