How can I boost my note-taking efficiency for a 300-level Organic Chemistry lecture with extremely fast-paced slides?

Stop trying to transcribe every arrow push during the lecture. In a fast-paced 300-level course, your goal shouldn't be to create a perfect set of notes in real-time, but rather to create a functional map of what you need to review later. Focus only on capturing the starting materials, the final products, and the specific names of the reagents or catalysts written above the reaction arrows. If the professor moves too fast to draw the mechanism, just scribble a shorthand note like "SN2 inversion" or "electrophilic addition" next to the reaction. Use blank space generously on your page so you have room to fill in the actual electron-pushing steps immediately after class while the logic is still fresh in your mind. You can also try printing the lecture slides ahead of time, but instead of writing on them, use them as a reference guide. Keep a separate notebook open for your own active sketches. When the professor flips a slide, jot down only the core transformation and the key concept. By treating the lecture as a live briefing rather than a dictation session, you will lower your stress levels and actually retain more of the complex chemistry being presented. This method shifts the heavy cognitive lifting to your post-lecture review, which is where true understanding happens.