First, since you have such a long commute, use that time to listen to either Khan academy videos for the subjects you are struggling with (note that i said *listen* - obviously you can't really watch them). Sometimes hearing an explanation that is different from what you have heard before can be helpful. I have found that UC San Diego has most of its lectures online as podcasts. Definitely look into the subjects you are struggling with and listen to one or two lectures each way. Immerse yourself in the material. You might also look for classes through iTunes U. The idea is to hear the subject matter from multiple perspectives - you never know when something will click!
General note taking: I learned from one student to take notes on the power points during lecture. I typed anything the professor states that is not clearly written on the slide and that seems somewhat important for class. Each professor has a specific testing method, so I found that some professors will test you on something said in lecture that wasn't written explicitly on the slides or in the book. I type significantly faster than I write (and I can't read my own handwriting when I write fast), so that helped me keep up. Plenty of people will record lectures to listen to later. This works better with content related classes and less so with problem solving classes). I then go over my notes a few days later and will recopy what was stated in lecture and what was on the powerpoints in a notebook (instead of writing in the notebook during class). Before the exam, I usually go through the notebooks carefully and rewrite what was important, testing myself on the points.
I'll agree with most people on Cell bio - this was a lot of memorization for me, but i also tried to apply stuff. My poor professor saw me in his office hours a LOT as I would try to understand the molecular nature of what was going on. That led to a research position in his lab, so it worked out well. But I found that concentrating on the molecular interactions was much more helpful than just trying to memorize. Of course, you have to memorize a lot of words for things, and as I'll note below - words are REALLY hard for me. Especially words that start with the same letter or sound the same. I found that writing a lot of the slides out, then trying to write them out from memory, then trying to put everything together helped. This class has put the fear of med school memorization in me, but I proved to myself that I might be able to actually do it.
For Biochemistry 1, I memorized the structure of each amino acid. Once I knew the structure, it was a lot easier to remember the physical characteristics (polar vs non-polar, charged vs. uncharged, etc.). I also came up with some less than brilliant ways to remember the names of amino acids (Arginine is "Arrr - ginine - a pirates' favorite amino acid. If you look at the structure, it looks like a sword hilt -- cheesy, but it worked for me. I have a ton of these if you want me to send them on, but you'll be groaning from the cheesiness). I find images much easier to remember than words, so this worked well for me. I also wrote and rewrote and tried to write from memory all of the pathways for metabolism. I would follow labeled carbon atoms through the Krebs Cycle and try to remember what was necessary at each step in the various metabolic cycles. The most difficult part was memorizing the enzyme names. I have a very difficult time with words (visual artist and auditory learner - written words and anything that looks the same or starts with the same letters really throw me off). I have no advice for this except try to determine why the name is what it is and whether it is named for the substrate or product.
Physics - for physics you need to do as many practice problems as you can. you need to first get an understanding of how to approach them, then repeat those steps on similar types of problems, attempting more complicated problems as you understand the easier ones. It's okay to look at a solution guide *once* for how to do a particular type of problem, but bar yourself from looking at it again until you have completed a problem and want to see if you approached it correctly. Also keep in mind there are sometimes multiple approaches for the same problems. I found with problem-based classes like this that I was usually lost for a while and then had a sudden "aha!" moment some time down the line. It generally required me going to office hours and trying to get help from peers. Once you get how to do a problem, you can practice that multiple times to really nail it down.
I hope this helps a little. I know we all have different approaches. Apparently one of the best ways to study is to practice recall, so I think the anki will help if I ever actually get around to downloading the app and trying it out...
