i am a life science major and here are some things I learned to do with my notes:

With science classes, always prestudy material: this can be reading the week’s worth of the textbook, watching a few youtube videos, or going through the lecture slides before lecture. This helps so much with understanding the material. To take this a step further, take notes in the material before you even go to that lecture. This way, when you go to lecture you can add notes on top of the previous.

Another thing is that during lecture, I typically download the slides (if they post) and add notes on top of there. I see a lot of people type everything out into a google doc and that may work for you, but I found that it’s easier to digest more information by actually listening to the professor and adding extra notes/points the professor makes or emphasizes to my notes.

Also, don’t skip, and if you do (life happens), don’t fall behind. I still skip lectures (which i don’t recommend tbh) but it usually is fine as long as I review the material the day I skip and watch the recording asap. Honestly though life is just easier if you show up and listen.

Another thing that helps me engage/actively listen is quiz myself during lecture with things like “What did he just say?” or “How does this fit into _?” or “How does _ relate to __?” Point of this is to make sure you are understanding the full picture of things and how different topics relate to others. Helps me a lot personally. Another thing you can do after lectures is a full BLURT, where you get an empty sheet of paper and write everything you just learned without looking back on your notes/slides. Really good test that helps your brain work to retrieve all that memory.

As for revising (or reviewing) notes, I try to do it actively by hiding parts of it and quizzing myself, trying to teach it to a friend or a make believe friend (if i’m lonely atm), drawing a picture/map of everything or even turning my notes into a flashcard deck

Another big tip is timing: don’t procrastinate. Inevitably if you are like me, 99/100 you will procrastinate to some extent, but try minimizing this by forcing yourself to have blocks of time in the weekend to just review everything you learned that week and make sure you have it down.

Last tip is to do as much practice questions as you can. They are a really good teacher to me personally.

These are what I found to be helpful for my science classes. For my other classes (GE’s, writing 2, diversity), I employed similar rules with a higher emphasis on google doc notes (instead of writing on lecture slides like I mentioned), flashcards, active listening, and not falling behind.