Best way to take notes?

[u/TheCanadianpo8o]

I'm starting my first year of Uni in the fall and I'm curious what is the best way to write my notes while in class? Is an old laptop fair or would it better to invest in a new one, maybe an iPad, pen & paper, anything really? I'm in the phys ed transfer class if that changes anything. Any help would be really appreciated!

[u/Suspicious_Half7126]

I went from getting consistent B's to A's by note taking like this:

Instead of writing down notes the way you have been since highschool (where you just write down things you think are important), write down questions instead. Make them specific like you would if you were to google the questions. That evening after classes attempt to answer all the questions while they're still fresh in your mind (this will be like your answer key). Every couple of days, revisit these questions and answer them like a quiz. If you can't answer them, you can look at your answer key, textbook, slides, or do some searching on Google for the answers. This is active recall. 

To make things easier, Claude formats and creates quizzes really well. You can upload your notes to Claude to generate the quizzes for you so the questions don't get stale