The first key to taking notes is to maintain a constant bulleting system. This will make it easier to look up topic subjects in your notebook. For example (let's pretend you're in biology):
I. Organelles
a. Mitochondria
1. Powerhouse of the cell
b. Golgi Apparatus
1. Creates lipids and proteins
As you can see, if I'm looking for a broad topic I can easily skim the left hand column, but if I'm looking for a specific topic I can use the broad topics and narrow it down. If you simply jot down notes like this:
- Organelles
- Mitochondria
- Powerhouse of the cell
- Golgi Apparatus
- Creates lipids and proteins
If you have a teacher who lectures but doesn't write notes on the board then it's fine to have a lot of notes, because sometimes it's hard to tell what information is important. However, sometimes the teachers will say specifically "Does everybody understand this because it's something you need to know" or "This will be on your test", then obviously write that down. After you write it down, put a little star next to it or highlight it, so that when you're studying you know that you have to memorize it.
If you have a teacher who writes notes on the board then copy what they write. There is usually no need to write more than the teacher writes because they wouldn't waste their time writing useless information.
Just remember, the only time you write too much is when you've surpassed that amount of pages in your text book! Note taking is to your satisfaction!
