How To Take Cornell Notes For College

by | Jun 23, 2015

I realize my Mind Maps For Studying method of note taking isn’t going to work for everyone.

I want to make sure my videos and blog posts can help everyone, I am determined to bring you multiple ways of taking notes.

This week I am giving you a tutorial on how to take Cornell Notes for college classes.

The Cornell Note taking method was the second way I took notes in college and I would tend to use this method more in my theory based classes.

The concept behind Cornell Notes is that you have a section where you record important points the professor makes, a section for you to create questions that relate to your professors points and a summary section that allows you to draw connections between all the information presented in lecture.

If used well, this method of notes taking can save you a lot of time and make the studying process so much easier.

 

Steps For Cornell Notes:

  1. Break up your page into 3 sections. One for writing questions (Left Hand Side).  One for taking notes (The largest section in the middle) and one for summarizing (Bottom of your page).
  2. During lecture or when you’re reading,  take notes on the key points in the middle section.
  3. After class,  go back and create questions based on the key points made during your lecture or reading. These questions should go in the section on the left hand side.
  4. Finally,  write a summary of what you learned.  The best tip I can give you for writing a summary is to ask yourself the following question. “How would I explain this topic to a child or someone who has never heard of it before?”

The simpler you can make the explanation without leaving any of the key points out, the better your grasp on the concept is.  If you can’t explain it simply, you yourself have not yet fully mastered it.

 

One Action You Can Take Now:

Watch the video and practice taking Cornell Style notes with on one of your favorite TV shows.  Take notes on what’s happening in the show. Create questions based on those notes and then give a summary of the episode. 

Leave Me A Comment:

Which method of taking notes do you think you will adopt. Cornell style or Mind Maps?