How to absorb lectures?

I don't seem to learn anything in lectures. This is a really bad problem I've developed. I only learn when I read my notes in my own time and do exercises. It's a shame, because some of my lecturers are really good (I think). So is there is a secret to absorbing lectures in "real time"?

What subject?

Pre-calc

^wrong thread, sorry

I don't seem to learn anything in lectures. This is a really bad problem I've developed. I only learn when I read my notes in my own time and do exercises.
There's nothing wrong with that. Lectures are only part of the learning process.

You could try reading the appropriate material ahead of time. I think that's what you're supposed to do in college actually but nobody actually does it.

I found in school just showing up to classes was enough to get As in everything and never understood other people saying telling me how many hours a day they revised things.

In university I can follow the pure maths lectures on the fly since they always take time with details, but calculation heavy ones like for methods courses just go over my head and I haven't got the patience to go through the lecture notes after to check all the calculations are correct and fill in all the missing logical steps. I figure I'll learn that applied shit when/if I need to.

I find that I don't retain the material at all unless I somehow do a critical evaluation of it. Thus, strive to have a deep understanding of everything said. Try to anticipate what the lecturer is going to explain next. Look for mistakes, and if anything said seems strange, argue the point internally until you're convinced one way or the other.

For the same reason, copying notes straight from the blackboard works poorly and takes focus away from the lecture. What used to work well for me before I got too lazy to take notes at all was to condense the material into a (practically unreadable) digest version. Or even just doodle. Draw Batman defeating a horde of communist zombies with Taylor series. Anything that makes you actively think about the material helps you internalize it.

I'd say the only way to improve on that is to make dickloads of during the lectures, not just what the lecturer is writing and/or saying, but add your own observations. Then redraft the notes adding in more info from other sources, and evalute the notes as you redraft them.

Pay attention and don't be a fucking retard about it.

Draw Batman defeating a horde of communist zombies with Taylor series.
This is all you need to do, OP! Listen to this man. He is very wise!

distill and apply liberally to scalp