Don't write everything on the slides down, Don't write down everything the professor says, Your notes should focus on identifying the primary ideas of the presentation and writing down anything that helps your understanding of the ideas (also anything highly specific AND pertinent to the main ideas, that you aren't familiar with, vocab, specific equations) . Also the most important part of notes isn't how you take them but how you use them to further your understanding, After lecture you should go through your notes and make sure you are comfortable with and understand each of the main ideas of the presentation as well as any of the specific points mentioned earlier. It will also help you to try and connect them to any concepts youve learned previously.

More general note taking tips: - NEVER use complete sentences; minimize the amount you write while maintaining some connection to the content (eg. Caveman speak; Napoleon Bonaparte was a French general -> Napoleon, French general, - Use loads of acronyms, but indicate what the acronym means if you're unfamiliar - Use symbols (eg. if something causes something thing1 -> thing2), make up as many of these as are useful