In the first viewing of a material, I generally write down basically everything that is said/rewrite the slides. You might have trouble keeping up and write sloppily or in shorthand, but as long as you can decipher it, perfect. I would then have a second notebook where I would write down important or harder to understand things in a more organized manner to be study material. I did this all on pen and paper personally, I don’t think specific note-taking apps are going to be the key.

I’m not an education expert but I believe writing down everything primarily does 2 things:

• it forces you to be an active listener
• by writing everything important at least twice, you’re forming neural connections that you would not otherwise form if you were simply listening/reading material. I do believe this is forming connections that are different, if not superior, to typing on a keyboard.