1. THE CORNELL NOTE
TAKING SYSTEM
SEVEN STEPS TO TAKING USEFUL LECTURE NOTES
2. NOTE TAKING CHECKLIST:
Attend all course lectures and labs
Use a loose leaf binder for notes
Use a separate binder for each course
Sit as close to the instructor as possible
Look over the previous lecture’s notes before each class
Place the course title, lecturer’s name, date, and page
number on each note page
Write lecture notes only on one side of the sheet
Try to write notes in short sentences
Record lecturer’s keywords
Number main ideas
Record both facts and ideas
Skip lines between main points
Record the lecturer’s examples
Do not doodle or draw non-lecture related images
3. THE CORNELL NOTE TAKING SYSTEM’S
SHEET:
• Write notes in the wide 6 inch
column. Write questions/cues
in the left narrow column.
Write a summary in the space
at the bottom of the note
sheet.
• Divide your paper in this
manner:
4. STEP ONE
• Capture the Lecturer’s Facts and Ideas in the six
inch column area
• Don’t give up. Some is better than none.
• Use abbreviations and the telegraphic style.
• Full sentence directly from lecture:
• “A top speed of over 70 miles per hour makes the cheetah
the world’s fastest animal.”
• Telegraphic sentence:
• Cheetah – world’s fastest animal – 70mph
• Leave gaps, you can fill in the information later.
5. STEP TWO
• Overview - read over your notes in the next
available free time. Experiments have shown that
unrehearsed information is sometimes forgotten in
as little as twenty seconds. So, fill in the gaps while
you can still visualize the lecturer and remember the
words and ideas.
• Mentally visualize the lecture
• Fill in the gaps based on reflection and course reading
• Make letters and words more legible
• Write out any abbreviations you may forget later
6. STEP THREE
• Write Questions –
1. Find the main idea
2. Formulate a question that the main idea answers
3. Write the brief question in the Question Column
• Why questions –
• Questions are powerful devices. Formulating questions
keeps you honest because to form a question, you
must fully understand the main idea you are working
on.
• By formulating questions, you are preparing for future
exams.
7. STEP FOUR
• Recite – Reciting is the most powerful and
dependable memory enhancing technique know
to the science of learning
• To recite follow this technique:
• Cover your notes exposing only the questions.
• Read the question
• Provide an answer
• Check to see if correct
• Recite until you get it right
8. STEP FIVE
• Summarize – at the bottom of each sheet of notes
write an “in-a-nutshell” version of the information on
just that sheet
• Write this summary section only after you have reviewed
and recited the material
• The summary should be in your own words and should be as
concise/brief as possible
9. STEP SIX
• Globalize – integrate facts and ideas
• An assemblage of unconnected facts and ideas is not
helpful
• You need to end up with a view of the whole because the
more unified your facts and ideas, the better your chances
of warding off forgetting
• One way to keep these facts and ideas connected is to
review previous lecture notes before starting today’s lecture
notes. The lectures will become a connected series, not
isolated islands in a sea of information
10. STEP SEVEN
• Reflect – reflection is the thinking you privately do to
make facts, principles, and ideas a permanent part
of your knowledge
• Link your notes to previous knowledge by asking:
• What is the significance of these facts and ideas
• What principles are they based on?
• How can I apply them to what I already know?
• How do these facts and ideas fit into my scheme of things?
• What do these facts and ideas imply?
• What’s beyond them?
• Just try to stretch your thinking and imagination – it
makes you a better critical thinker
