Is taking notes a waste of time for alevels ?

ABSOLUTELY MAKE NOTES.

A-Levels, especially Chemistry can be pretty hard and they will f*** you if you're not careful.
As for studying, make detailed notes, do the homework, organise well and revise like you would for GCSE but a fair bit more.

When you write your notes do you solely base them off the textbook or a variety of different sources ? Do you make notes to understand the topic(alot of detail) or small notes (key points) just to memorize it ?

Im very stuck on how to structure and write notes because i never did notes at gcse because everything i needed to know was in the textbook
thanks

Make notes on the stuff the teacher says and shows. Do mostly key points but don't skip stuff. Then around revision time go through texbooks read everything and fill the notes out.

Im not sure wether i should waste time to make notes off the textbook for alevel biology and chemistry or just try reading and recalling what i read and writing it on a piece of paper ?

Revising for GCSES seems to be very different from alevel does anyone know an effective way to study for alevel biology and chemistry ?

Taking notes in lessons is a waste of time IMO - if i spent most of the lesson writing i felt like I took nothing in and my handwriting when rushing is awful so I'd recommend just writing down a few important facts that you notice aren't in the textbook or ones that you're likely to forget.

However I'd recommend making notes/writing facts down in some way or another wwhen you're revising because writing helps you to learn (but copying word for word from a textbook does not!). It could be on flash cards, mindmaps, posters etc. Saying things out loud (usually when alone or you'll get some strange looks) can help and it sounds weird but if you recall facts out loud whilst you're walking/pacing up and down I found that the information stuck with me more and there's building evidence to suggest movement during revision helps to retain knowledge.

Once teaching for one unit has finished, finish all of your notes and then complete past paper after past paper - don't waste all year writing notes because it's important to familiarise yourself with the types of questions that frequently come up in exams. Mark your own papers and use them to identify your weaker topics, then revise those with your notes and try another past paper.

One final tip - some people swear by having neat and organised notes but I didnt and I found it less stressful not to worry about what my notes looked like. Most of the time i wrote out some notes on a rough bit of paper and then threw them away after that session because i knew that I wasn't going to go back and look at them again, I'd just go back to the textbook or online resources.

Hope this helps!

Wow thanks a lot !!!!! I feel so relieved knowing its not just me who feels like im just wasting time doing notes during class , i usually write down so much and retain noting lol i will definitely only do key points in class from now on. I never knew walking and talking out loud would help but i will l give it a shot. I though maybe for revision ill just make a subheading "Understanding" and write it down in detail and then another subheading "summary" and write all the key point that have to be stuck in my head and try to learn these off by heart. Then when im done with a chapter ill ask myself questions and when im done with the unit ill do past papers and the wrong ones ill repeat and eventually put on flashcards and learn these off by heart. Good idea ?
Thanks alot again