I would say yes, most good therapists DO make notes and will recall previous conversations. I would call your T out and tell him exactly what you wrote here. That you felt he was not prepared. It's your time and it's valuable. You have a right to stand up for it.

My Therapist has varying times of taking me in but they're almost always a little after the hour. I know there are times we end 5-10 minutes before and I am in my car before the end of the hour, and I know from the waiting room that clients before me leave 5-10 minutes ahead of my time. This leaves her actual session time at 45minutes total.

I wondered if this was just slacking but one time she was running late and as I walked in she took the file form her cabinet and looked it over in front of me. This file is on her desk for every appointment and it's pretty full. So I'm assuming she does make notes after each session, the reviews them beforehand.

That being said, there are different methods. I aslo had a Couple Counselor who was always running late from session to session. We're quite certain she wasn't taking notes between sessions as she always took someone in as we left and vice versa. BUT, she had the memory of an elephant and always recalled what we had last talked about and referred directly to recent conversations and past sessions, no problem. We always assumed she took some time at the end of the day to make notes - or she was a spot-on genius.