Note taking is a very important skill. It is also something, like many of the other skills outlined in this guide, that your professors won't teach you. However, while your professors don not teach notr taking, they will expect you know how to take notes.
Here are some of the ways note taking will help you to better understand the material being taught in your classes, which in turn will help you to be a more successful student:
Psychologist George Miller published an article about his research on memory in 1956. What he found in 1956 is still considered to be true today. His research was on the limits of the average person's short term memory.
Basically, George Miller found that our "channel capacity" or the ability to make choices lies somewhere between five and nine. Hence, The Magic Number Seven (7 - 2 = 5 and 7 + 2 = 9). Thus, you really can't depend on our short term memories to retain a lot of information. You need to take notes!
Read the George Miller's 1956 article that explains his research. It's available through PsychArticles a library database. Here's the citation that contains the information you would need to find his article:
Miller, George A. "The Magical Number Seven, Plus Or Minus Two: Some Limits On Our Capacity For Processing Information." Psychological Review 63.2 (1956): 81-97. PsycARTICLES. Web. 13 Apr. 2016.