I like College Ruled paper and a Techniclick pencil... which they seem to have stopped making (or at least stopped selling at office stores). Luckily, I have a stockpile of a dozen or so... The only bad part is that the erasers wear out too quickly, and can be hard to change if they're worn all the way down (protip: use the tip of another pencil to pull it out).

It's taken me a little while throughout school, but I've honed in on my favorite pen. It's the Zebra F-301 Compact. The pen is perfectly balanced, compact, sleek, durable, fluid and a workhorse.

As far as paper is concerned, I prefer generic yellow, letter-sized notepads. Don't ask me why.

For me the paper isn't as important as the pen. I swear by Sharpie pens. http://www.amazon.com/Sharpie-Fine-Point-Colored-1742662/dp/B001CRYXHG/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=office-products&qid=1265091233&sr=8-4

For paper I just use whatever notebooks I can get for cheap. for back to school Walmart usually has 1-subject notebooks for $0.05, but they go FAST (Within a day) so you've gotta get there fast. I bought 65 notebooks when it last came around so I'm all set for a while. For a general daily planner I've heard good things about moleskine

I typically type my notes out on my laptop but there is one class which defies my outline format. Organic chemistry demands too much scrawl, shorthand and far too many drawings to be typed.

I used to use Spiral bound College ruled notebooks to take notes in but the lined paper wasn't allowing for my thoughts to flow the way I wanted. On a trip to Wal-Mart I found the holy grail: Spiral bound Graph paper notebooks. Unlike the bookstore's offerings of 'scientific' 4x4 paper, this stuff is dirt cheap. I bought two; one for in-class 'dirty" notes and a second for divided 'clean' notes. I might even buy a third as a practice book. The grid really helps for drawing benzene rings and the non-linear nature of it allows for some creative layouts.

As far as pens I like the gel-type the best. The way the ink rolls with little resistance is appealing but they do tend to leave a mess if you don't let them dry. I imagine it could be a problem if you're left handed as well. Uni-Ball and Tul are my favorites, but watch them closely. Classmates will 'borrow' (steal) the things and they are NOT cheap. I find the fine tips to be the best for words as the ink dries most rapidly. Medium tips are nice for drawing molecular structures because they define bonds well.

If you've been following over at hackcollege, I print Cornell notes onto 32 lb HP Premium Choice Laser paper and write with a Lamy Safari fountain pen filled with Private Reserve ink.

Generally I don't put any real thought into the pen and paper I'm using except to avoid pens built in a...painful way. It always seems to me that the pens I like best are the ones that you need to let DRY otherwise all your notes turn to sludge, so that's impractical for me. I prefer my netbook as long as I don't end up in a class with loads of difficult to transfer to computer type things like shapes and formulas and such.

And then theres the fact that if you DO find a nice pen/paper combo it seems to attract the kind of people who forget a pen...or paper...or maybe their liver, and think yours would do just fine. It's annoying, even if you don't say yes, so I avoid specialization unless I have a nice secured spot away from beggars.

I carry a netbook and pen/paper though just in case I get one of those technophobe "you wont take notes you will be surfing the net the whole time I know this I have a way to see into your brain" type professors.

I have always loved to take notes on unlined printer paper, why, because it allows you to structure your notes however you want. I take a lot of biology and chemistry classes and am often required to rotate my paper; rotating lined paper, has the unintentional side effect of having the lines interfere with the notes. I tend to use a binder and keep all of my notes in a binder, 1 class/1 binder, since using notebooks for me leads to a lot of wastage, in certain classes I rarely take notes, and in others I take notes like crazy, binders allow me to add paper as I need. It is also easier for me to copy notes for friends with a binder, I can pull out the desired pages, and use the quick feed feature of most copy machines.

My favorite pen for note taking is the 0.5mm Uniball ONYX and the Uniball Micro, I wrote a whole blog post on how I came to the decision http://mohammadarfeen.com/2009/09/04/pens/. I also love the standard Bic pen, for some reason nothing beats them in price, reliability, and quality.

EDIT: I noticed a lot of people talking about typing and using computers, I tend to hand write all of my notes, and eventually at the end of the day either scan them in if they have lots of diagrams, or type them into a PBwiki I have set up for all my notes, maybe one day I'll open it up to the public, but for now you can have some screenshots of the format if your interested.

Index Page:

Sample Class Page:

I LOVE new notebooks. If I could write a page of notes on a different new notebook every day, I would. [But you know, I think Al Gore might hunt me down...]

I've noticed that most professors hate pencil with a fiery passion, so I've gotten into the habit of using pen. My favorite pen was this free promotional one I got from the Disney College Program. It was a sad day when that beauty broke...

I like Mead 5 star spiral notepads to write on when I'm taking notes. As far as the pens go, it's whatever I can find in my backpack at the time, which often times is nothing. Resulting in me being that guy who always asks for school supplies... I guess I should really invest in some pens.

If I had the choice though, I would type all of my notes because I am a much faster typer. Plus I have sloppy handwriting.

I swear by those cheap little blue papermate pens. The ones that just look like a piece of crappy blue plastic. But the ink flows amazing from them and this will sound crazy but I think the blue ink is one of the nicer shades I've seen. As far as notebooks/loose leaf goes, I use the university branded notebooks from the bookstore on campus (made by Top Flight). They're a few bucks more than something you'd get at Staples but the pages are slightly wider. Just barely. I also think the margins are a good size for writing key points Cornell style. I definitely don't take notes in true Cornell fashion, but anything I deem important gets to be written and starred in the margin.