The Cornell note-taking method divides each page into three parts: a large notes column on the right, a narrow cue column on the left, and a summary box at the bottom. You take notes during the lesson, write questions or keywords in the cue column afterwards, and then cover the notes and answer your own cues. It turns notes into a built-in quiz.
Where it came from
Walter Pauk, an education professor at Cornell University, developed the system in the 1950s and described it in his book How to Study in College. It is still taught widely in schools and universities because it is simple and works on plain paper.
The page layout
| Area | Where | What goes in it |
|---|---|---|
| Notes | Right, about two thirds wide | Key points from the lecture or reading, in your own words |
| Cues | Left, about one third wide | Questions, keywords and prompts, written after class |
| Summary | Bottom, a few lines | Your own summary of the page in 2 to 3 sentences |
Rule a vertical line about 6 cm from the left edge and a horizontal line about 5 cm from the bottom. Put the date and topic at the top.
The five steps
- Record. During the lecture or while reading, write the main points in the notes column. Use short phrases, abbreviations and indents. Skip lines between ideas.
- Reduce. Within a day, read through the notes and write questions or keywords in the cue column, each next to the note it covers. Good cues are questions that need an explanation, such as "Why does inflation reduce savings?" rather than "Inflation".
- Recite. Cover the notes column with a sheet of paper. Look at each cue and say or write the answer. Slide the paper away to check.
- Reflect. Think about how the page links to other topics. Add a line on what you still do not understand.
- Review. Write the summary box, then revisit the cues for a few minutes each week.
A worked example
Say a lecture covers supply and demand. The notes column might hold: "Demand curve slopes down. Price up, quantity demanded down. Shifts when income, tastes, prices of related goods change. Movement along curve is caused by price only."
The cue column then reads: "What shifts the demand curve?", "Shift vs movement along?", "Why does it slope down?" The summary box reads: "Demand shows how much buyers want at each price. A price change moves along the curve. Other changes shift it." You now have a page that you can quiz yourself from with no extra preparation.
Why it works
- The cue column makes you process the notes a second time, which is when understanding forms.
- Covering and answering is retrieval practice, one of the best-supported study techniques.
- The summary box forces you to say what the page is about in your own words.
- Review is built in because the page is already a set of questions.
Common mistakes
- Copying the lecture word for word. Listen, then write the idea in your own words.
- Writing cues straight away and never revisiting. The recite step is the valuable one.
- Cues that are single words. A word can be recognised without being understood.
- Leaving the summary until exam week. Write it the same day.
Cornell notes on a laptop
You can use two columns in a table in a word processor, or an app with a template. Typing is faster, but the risk is transcribing the lecture without thinking. A 2014 study by Mueller and Oppenheimer found that verbatim typed notes did worse than handwritten summaries on conceptual questions. Whichever you use, paraphrase.
Variations that work
You do not need to follow the layout perfectly. Some students add a margin for page references, a box for action points, or a second summary at the end of each week. Others draw diagrams in the notes column for science subjects, and use the cue column for the labels.
Reading notes from a textbook
Cornell works for reading as well as lectures. Write the notes from each section in your own words, add cues at the end, and use the cover-and-recite step as a self-test before moving on. This also helps to avoid copying whole paragraphs.
How long should it take?
Expect the note-taking to take the lecture length, then 10 to 15 minutes afterwards for cues and the summary. That second step feels like extra work, but it replaces a lot of later rereading, so the total time is often lower.
Cornell notes and Type to Study
If you upload your lecture notes or a course book as a PDF or Word file, Type to Study turns them into lessons, key-term flashcards and quizzes, which does the cue-and-quiz step automatically. It is a complement to taking good notes, not a replacement. You still need to attend, listen and write your own summaries.