For a very long time in university, I never took notes and suffered nothing for it. Near the end, the only exceptions were classes taught from very succinct pap

For a very long time in university, I never took notes and suffered nothing for it. Near the end, the only exceptions were classes taught from very succinct paper material where a lot of supplementary examples were only treated in lectures and so complicated as not to be (easily) found on the internet. Beyond that I always got a much better return on paying more attention to the lecture, and trying to see how what is told fits with what I know rather than how to fit it into my notes.