When taking notes in class:

Start with a sharp pencil or a good pen.

This may seem obvious, but make sure your pencil is sharpened or your pen is working before the class starts

Sit close enough so that you can hear and see well.

You should be able to easily copy down anything that is written on the board. The same goes for field trips. If you are taking notes you need to be close enough to understand everything that is said.

You don't need to write down everything the teacher says.

The object of note taking is to pick out the key ideas and jot them down. Ideally, you should listen 80% of the time and write 20% of the time.  Sort out what is important by listening carefully for the main points and put them down in your own brief words.

Use abbreviations wherever possible.

Use ex to mean example, sec to mean secondary, trig to mean trigonometry, and so on. You may come up with abbreviations yourself, but don't get so creative that you can't remember what everything means afterward. For example, you may be taking notes where the term hydraulic comes up often. You could abbreviate it as hyd, but if you are also faced with the terms hydrology, hydrogen, hydrate, and hydrostatic, you may be confused later on as to which term you meant.

Listen to clues the teacher gives as to anything that is very important.

Some teachers will actually tell you which concepts are going to appear on your exams. Mark those points with a star in the margin, or some other way that will easily catch your eye.

Write legibly.

You may have to write quickly, but also try to write neatly. Pages of notes are completely useless if they can’t be read.

Pay attention throughout the entire class period.

Again, this may seem obvious, but if you allow your mind to wander it is very difficult to catch all of the key ideas. If you miss one important point, everything that comes afterwards may not make sense.

When taking notes from a book:

Be sure you know exactly what information you have to find.

The more exactly you know what you are looking for, the easier it will be to write good notes. Imagine you are doing a project on explorers and you have chosen to write about Christopher Columbus. Find out from your teacher precisely what information you need to include in your work.

Make your notes short.

Do not write complete sentences - use abbreviations and symbols. Do not use words like "a" and "the". Sometimes it’s better to draw a quick diagram than to write words or phrases; e.g. if you want to show Columbus’ route to America.

Make sure your notes are legible.

It’s no use scribbling quick notes that you can’t read later. It helps to space out your notes down the page, so that you can easily add new information if necessary. If you number your notes, this will help to keep them organized.

Use your own words.

Do not just copy chunks from the text. This is plagiarism, and will result in a failing grade for the work, or even expulsion, as you get higher up in the school. In fact, if you follow the advice above, you will not run the risk of plagiarism.

What about highlighting?

Some students like to copy pages from the book and then highlight important information in the text with a bright pen. This is sometimes a good idea, especially for small numbers of pages, as it’s quick and easy to do. However, there are some problems with this method. Firstly, if you have many pages to copy, it can waste time and be expensive. Secondly, the information you highlight may not be in the same order that you want to report it. Thirdly, there is a great risk that you will just copy the words in the text.

If you like to highlight, the best solution is to continue doing it, but then write your own notes from the highlighted passages.