The Cornell note-taking method: how to actually use it in class

The Cornell note-taking method is a way of taking notes that splits the page into three parts: a wide column on the right for what happens in the lecture, a narrow column on the left for questions and cues, and a strip along the bottom for a two or three line summary. The point isn't the layout itself, it's what the layout lets you do later: cover the right column and answer the questions from memory.

In other words, the Cornell note taking method turns every page into a practice test you wrote yourself. That's what makes it useful, and it's also the part almost everyone skips: they draw the three boxes, fill in the right side during class and never come back to the left.

I'm a senior in computer engineering and I use a version of it for lectures that come with slides. To show it, I picked a lecture from a different field, an Intro to Microeconomics class on price elasticity of demand, because it's a topic where what the slide says and what you actually need to understand are pretty far apart.

Where it comes from and what the page looks like

It was developed by Walter Pauk, an education professor at Cornell University, in his book How to Study in College, and Cornell still teaches it through its Learning Strategies Center. The page looks like this:

• Right column, wide (about two thirds of the page): your lecture notes. What the professor says, the examples, what isn't on the slide.
• Left column, narrow: stays empty during the lecture. Later you fill it with questions and cues that point to what's on the right.
• Bottom strip: two or three lines summing up the whole page, written at the end.
• Top: course, date and topic, so you can find it later.

You can draw it by hand in any notebook or set up a template in a word processor. The layout matters less than using each part for what it's for.

The five steps, with a microeconomics lecture

Pauk lays it out in five steps, usually called the five Rs. Here they are with the elasticity lecture.

1. Record, during the lecture

In the right column you write down what happens in the lecture, not what's on the slide (you already have that). Short phrases, abbreviations, the professor's examples.

In the elasticity lecture, the slide said "Price elasticity = % change in quantity / % change in price". What went on the right was what the professor added: "if price goes up 10% and quantity drops 20%, elasticity is 2: elastic demand. Example: one soda brand among many. Salt is the opposite: even if it gets pricier, you buy about the same".

2. Reduce, the same day

That evening, or the next day at the latest, you read through the right column and write one question on the left for every important idea. Not a single word: a question whose answer is on the right.

• "What does price elasticity measure?"
• "When is demand elastic?"
• "Why is salt inelastic but a soda brand isn't?"
• "What happens to total revenue if I raise the price of an inelastic good?"

This is the step that pays off most and gets skipped most. Writing the question forces you to figure out what actually mattered in what you wrote down.

3. Recite, with the right side covered

Cover the right column with a sheet of paper, read each question on the left and answer it out loud or in writing, without looking. Then uncover it and compare.

This isn't a minor detail of the method: it's the part with the evidence behind it. Trying to recall without looking is retrieval practice, and in Roediger and Karpicke's experiment students who tested themselves remembered a lot more days later than students who reread the same text. If you want the details on why it works, I go through them in active recall.

4. Reflect, with the summary at the bottom

At the end of the page you write two or three lines answering "what do I need to take away from this lecture?". For elasticity: "Elasticity measures how much quantity reacts to a price change. It depends on substitutes and on how big a share of spending the good is. It tells you whether raising the price brings in more revenue or less".

A fair warning: summarizing on its own isn't one of the stronger techniques, according to a large review of study techniques, especially if nobody taught you how to do it well. That's why in Cornell the summary is short and comes after the questions, not instead of them.

5. Review, over several days

Every few days you go back to old pages and repeat step three: cover the right side and answer the left. What comes back right away, you space out more; what doesn't, comes back sooner. That's the idea behind spaced repetition, with your own pages as the flashcards.

Cornell notes you never review are just notes with a margin. The five steps work together; the layout without steps three and five doesn't change much.

The version for lectures with slides

The method was designed for lectures where your notes were the only thing you walked out with. Today almost every course has slides, and copying the slide into the right column is wasted time: you already have it.

Here's what I do:

• On the right, only what isn't on the slide. The example, the clarification, the "this will definitely be on the exam". Next to it, the slide number it goes with.
• On the left, questions as usual. The answer can be in your right column or on the slide: when you review, you cover both.
• At the bottom, a summary of the whole lecture, not just the page, if the lecture took several.

If a lecture added nothing beyond the slides, you can still fill the left column with questions about the slides themselves. The Cornell page ends up as basically a list of questions, and that's fine.

Cornell notes on a laptop or tablet

It works the same on a computer or a tablet, with a two-column table and a row at the bottom, or a template you reuse for every lecture. The thing to watch digitally is being able to hide the answer: on paper you use another sheet; on screen, a table where you can hide a column, or blocks that collapse.

These days I take my notes in Filmina, a web app that explains your lecture slides out loud, because the notes live inside the lecture's own document. For Cornell I use the toggle block: the question is the title and the answer goes inside, collapsed, so when I review I only open it after answering. And since Mina reads my notes when it explains that lecture, what the professor said makes it into the explanation. I still write the questions myself: that step doesn't get handed off.

If your notes come from a slide deck rather than a lecture, how to take notes from slides might help too, with a similar format built for that.

The most common mistakes

• Leaving the left column empty. Mistake number one. No questions, nothing to cover.
• Writing single words instead of questions. "Elasticity" on the left doesn't ask you anything; "when is demand elastic?" does.
• Writing everything down on the right. If you copy every word, you stop listening. Short phrases, and what isn't anywhere else.
• Writing the summary before the questions. The summary comes out better once you know what mattered.
• Reviewing by reading. Rereading the whole page top to bottom isn't step five. Step five is covering and answering.

Frequently asked questions

What is the Cornell note-taking method?

It's a note-taking system created by Walter Pauk at Cornell University that splits the page into a wide column for notes, a narrow column for questions and cues, and a strip at the bottom for a summary. You then study by covering your notes and answering the questions.

What are the 5 Rs of Cornell notes?

Record your notes in class, reduce them to questions in the left column, recite the answers with the right side covered, reflect with a short summary, and review the pages every few days.

Do Cornell notes work for lecture slides?

Yes, with one change: in the right column you only write what isn't on the slides, with the slide number next to it. The questions on the left can be answered by your notes or by the slide.

Can you do Cornell notes digitally?

Yes. A two-column table with a row for the summary works, or blocks that collapse to hide the answer. What matters is being able to hide the answer when you review.