Taking notes at school goes with listening teacher carefully. Listening is the key of learning and remembering. So, everything important you hear, write it down in notes. My personal tip is to always have a book on class (or digital one if it's okay in your school) and, as you listen, you can see what you can learn from book and what you can't. So, when teacher say something that isn't in the book, you can write it on a sticky note and stick it in your book or you can write it in your notebook (if there's too much important informations). That is usefull for subjects and teachers that wants you to know a lot of details. Other things teachers are saying, ones that are in the book, highlight them. Don't learn informations your teacher find unimportant. They want to hear you saying what they said to you. Once you try this, it will be so easy for you to learn.
cornell notes
I tried this one and I'm not very into it. In my school, we usually write a lot and there are a lot of examples so it's not very practical. But, if it's good for your classes, here's something more about it and the pdf form. 1. Draw a horizontal line across the bottom portion of your paper. This line should be approximately one-fourth of the way up the page, about two inches from the bottom. Later, you will use this section to summarize your notes. 2. Draw a vertical line down the left section of your paper. This line should be approximately two and a half inches from the left edge of the page. This will be used as the section for reviewing your notes. 3. Leave the largest section of the page as the area for taking notes from the lecture or reading. This section on the right of the page should leave you plenty of space to record important points. 4. Mark the course name, the date, and the lecture or reading topic at the top of your page. Do this consistently, and it will help you keep your notes organized and make reviewing course material much easier. 5. Take notes in the largest section of the page. While listening to a lecture, or reading a text, take notes only in the right-hand section of the page. Include any information that the professor writes on a board or shows in a slideshow. 6. Use notes to listen or read actively. Whenever you come across an important point, make a note of it. Look for signals marking important information. If an instructor says something like "the three most important implications of X are…" or "there are two basic reasons why X happened," then this is likely information that you will want to record in your notes. If you are taking notes from a lecture, listen out for points that are emphasized or repeated, as these are likely important. These tips hold true if you are reading a text and come across statements like these examples. Textbooks will often put key terms in bold type, for example, or restate important information in graphs or charts. 7. Keep it simple. Think of your notes as an outline of the lecture or reading. Focus on getting just the key words and points down so that you can keep up with the lecture or reading—you will have time later to review and fill in the gaps. Rather than writing out complete sentences, use bullet points, shortcuts (like “&” instead of “and”), abbreviations, and any personal note-taking symbols you have. For example, instead of writing out a full sentence, such as “In 1703, Peter the Great founded St. Petersburg and ordered its first building, the Peter and Paul Fortress,” you could write simply “1703—Peter founds St. Pete & builds Peter & Paul Fort.” The shorter version will make it easier to keep up while still recording the essential information. 8. Record general ideas, not illustrative examples. Go for the big ideas in the lecture, rather than trying to record all the examples the instructor may give to illustrate these ideas. Paraphrasing not only saves time and space, it forces you to make connections between the ideas presented and your own expression of them, which will help you remember material later. 9. Summarize the main ideas in the bottom section of the page. This helps to clarify all of the information you have recorded. Putting the gist of the material in your own words is a good way to check your comprehension. If you can summarize the page of notes, it means you are well on your way to understanding the material. You might ask yourself, "How would I explain this information to someone else?"
You can download cornell note template pdf file here.
my kind of taking notes
If you ask me, best way to take notes is to just write everything like an essay with few paragraphs (according to theme), but to highlight keywords at the moment, before you forget. Also, highlight years, formulas, definitions... If you forget to add something or you didn't hear it, leave a little space and write it on sticky note after you ask someone. Put the sticky note in the little blank space. I usually start paragraphs with keywords or questions. When I get home, I see what should I add from my book and sometimes write it on paper or in other notebook. If this kind of note taking seems messy to you and you want your notebook to look perfect, use different notebook for taking notes in school and then, when you combine notes and book, write it nicely in other notebook.