Always get the text your teacher is using for a particular lesson in hand. It is a good tool and something to serve as a reference.
A learner should have books. If everyone is borrowing to make things in life, a learner should rather borrow to buy books for his life and the hereafter.
Good is the maxim:
قيد العلم بالكتاب
"Retain knowledge by the means of (studying) books."
Your book is yours, so when you hear salient points from your teacher while explaining some parts of the book, always make jottings in the book or a well-defined notebook. Ensure that you write as legibly as possible. Illegible handwriting is a future regret.
Jottings you make in your book are not to be made as a kind of design, rather what you can always recourse to from time to time.
And when you buy a book, have a general look at it first before putting it on the shelf. A skimming can be the least you do to a book before adding it up to others
Check the name of the author, the year it was written then check its table of content. You can flip some of its pages to have a cursory look at its content. Just try to have the idea of the subject matter of the book.
You may have a research wokr to do in future, the checking you once did on your book can remind of you of some points or areas to include in your work.
Some people buy the same book more than a time simply because they never checked it the first time they bought it.
That is by the way, the intent of this piece is that you should always make useful jottings in your book.
Jottings can also be made during your independent reading. Kindly make jottings don't mind the book getting 'defaced.' The book is yours, so use it like a book not like a decoration for your living room or whatever.
You can have a general exercise book divided into sections: Benefits in Fiqh, Benefits in Usool Fiqh, Benefits in Mustalah, etc, where you can record salient points. These salient points can become useful sources for your publication in future.
The bottom line is make use of your books.
