Cornell Notes

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The Cornell note-taking system is a widely-used notetaking system devised in the 1950s by Walter Pauk, an education professor at Cornell University. Pauk advocated its use in his best-selling How to Study in College, but its use has spread most rapidly in the past decade.

1 Overview of method
2 Five R's of Note Taking
3 Software
4 External links

[edit] Overview of method

The student divides the paper into two columns: the note-taking column (usually on the right) is twice the size of the key word column (on the left). Notes from a lecture or textbook are written in the note-taking column. Write the main ideas and rephrase long pieces of information, avoid writing complete sentences, try to use symbols or abbreviations instead. Afterwards, relevant questions should be taken as soon as possible so that way the lecture and questions will be fresh your mind, or key words are written in the key word column. The student also writes a short summary on the last four lines.

The student then covers up the note-taking column and responds to the questions/keywords in the key word column. The student is encouraged to reflect on the material and review the notes regularly. The Cornell method provides a systematic format for condensing and organizing notes.

After the notes have been taken, the student then writes a brief summary at the bottom of the page. This helps to increase understanding of the topic. When studying for either a test or quiz study both sections of your notes

[edit] Five R's of Note Taking

1. Record. During the lecture, record in the main column as many meaningful facts and ideas as you can. Write legibly.

2. Reduce. As soon after as possible, summarize these ideas and facts concisely in the Recall Column. Summarizing clarifies meanings and relationships, reinforces continuity, and strengthens memory. Also, it is a way of preparing for examinations gradually and well ahead of time.

3. Recite. Now cover the column, using only your jottings in the Recall Column as cues or "flags" to help you recall, say over facts and ideas of the lecture as fully as you can, not mechanically, but in your own words and with as much appreciation of the meaning as you can. Then, uncovering your notes, verify what you have said. This procedure helps to transfer the facts and ideas of your long term memory.

4. Reflect. Reflective students distill their opinions from their notes. They make such opinions the starting point for their own musings upon the subjects they are studying. Such musings aid them in making sense out of their courses and academic experiences by finding relationships among them. Reflective students continually label and index their experiences and ideas, put them into structures, outlines, summaries, and frames of reference. They rearrange and file them. Best of all, they have an eye for the vital-for the essential. Unless ideas are placed in categories, unless they are taken up from time to time for re-examination, they will become inert and soon forgotten.

5. Review. If you will spend 10 minutes every week or so in a quick review of these notes, you will retain most of what you have learned, and you will be able to use your knowledge currently to greater and greater effectiveness