One of the essentials to get a good grade on your test is having good notes to review. But that sounds easier than it is. You can write down a lot, and still not getting the essence of what has been told to you. And when you are reviewing your notes, you have a lot to review. There is just so much, can you get all of this in your head? Probably not. There is a way to get good notes to review, including the essentials of what has been told to you, this is the Cornell Method of note taking. This will force you to understand the essence and to take complete notes.
What Cornell notes?
The Cornell method means that you divide your piece of paper in 3 boxes. The above-right box contains the name of the class, the date and the name of the teacher. This gives you a good overview and you know where to go to when you have any questions.
The big box on the right is where you take your notes. You take notes as usual, you write down what you have to write down and you make a pretty big, complete story. Everything you need to know is on there and more. In this box you also make drawnings and write down examples and cases. This box contains a lot of text and when you write it down you know you won’t remember all of it.
The small box on the left contains the key points of what you have written down. And nothing more. Only the essentials, you can review the notes on the right when you don’t understand something good enough.
How to make notes with Cornell notes
- When you enter class, get your notebook and draw lines to divide the boxes. Write down the name of the class, date and name of the teacher (and maybe his email address?) in the box top right.
- Start taking notes. Write down almost everything the teachers says in the big box at the right and do it fast. Use abbreviations and doodles to write faster. When you are in doubt whether or not you need to know this, just write it down.
- Go to the library after class and review your notes. Get the key points, the essentials, out of what you’ve done. Write them in the left box, where you keep the key points. Don’t write too much, you don’t need to explain points again, just cite to the right box. Make use of arrows.
- When you are on the point with your studying for a test that you need to review your notes, review the key-points only. Don’t bother the big story at the right anymore, only review the key points. When you don’t understand something, or it is not completely clear, take a look at the box on the right. See the examples there and understand what you meant when you wrote the key points down.
The Cornell Method will make you understand your own notes better and saves you time. Besides that, you will also remember the lectures better, because you have reviewed them right away. The key-points will be floating around after the lecture, so you will remember those better.
Start now, start dividing your notebook in 4 boxes, or just buy a Cornell-method notebook (pre-divided, awesomeness). Put it into practise and be a winner.
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Stefan:
Great post, as usual, your writing is improving with every post. Congratulations.
I am not at all familiar with the Cornell Method, but I am aware that Cornell is an ivy league university in the United States based in Ithaca, New York. Is this just a coincidence?
Please clarify. Maybe other readers would also like to know the history of Cornell Method.
Just a thought that entered my mind while reading your post, that’s all.
Your tips are useful. It is practical to take notes. And scoring good grades is essential, to be sure.
In a competitive society, so much depends on taking sound notes and doing well in school.
Twitter: zacharylinzhao
February 15, 2010 at 10:32 pm
“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.”
Taken from the omnipotent Wikipedia.
Zachary Zhao´s last blog ..Ten big ideas from TED – CNN.com
How would you apply this technique to other forms such as PowerPoint lecture notes/discussion frameworks as well as required readings?
I think that the most important thing about taking notes that you can actually do is review them, right after class and make sure that everything is clear at that moment. Write down any questions you have and try to get answers.
After that it’s a regular review schedule: after a day, a week, a month and perhaps even at six months (A massive review at the end of every semester). That’s the difference between quick memorizing for a test and actually committing to memory for a long long time.
Great post Stefan
ChristiaanH – Mind the Beginner´s last blog ..You’re No Good if you don’t Know (!/?)
Thanks for this, its a great resource. I wish I’d heard about it sooner. There is a great pdf generator here: http://www.eleven21.com/notetaker/ that I found in a Bing search. It’s great. The layout varies a bit from the one described here, but has the same purpose.
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