Most notes are written once and read again the night before the exam. The Cornell method, developed at Cornell University in the 1950s, changes that by building the review into the page itself. A Cornell page has room for notes, for questions about those notes, and for a short summary, so the same page you wrote in class becomes a test you can take later.
How to set up the page
Divide a page into three parts:
- Notes: the large right-hand column, about two thirds of the width. This is where you write during the lesson or while reading.
- Cues: a narrow left-hand column. Leave it empty during class.
- Summary: a strip across the bottom, about five lines high. Also empty at first.
It works the same on paper, in a notes app or in a document with a two-column table.
During class: the notes column
Write the main ideas, not every word. Short phrases, abbreviations and simple diagrams are fine. Leave a gap between ideas so you can add to them later. If you miss something, mark it with a question mark and move on rather than stopping to catch up.
After class: the cue column
This is the step that makes Cornell notes different. The same day, or the next, read through your notes and write a question in the cue column next to each main idea. For a note about the causes of a war, the cue might be "Three causes of the war?" For a formula, "When do you use this formula?"
Writing the questions forces you to decide what each part of your notes is actually about, which is already a first review.
The summary
At the bottom, write two to four sentences that sum up the whole page in your own words. If you cannot, that tells you which part you did not understand, and it is much better to find that out now than before the exam. Explaining an idea in plain words is the heart of the Feynman technique, and the summary is a small version of it.
Reviewing with Cornell notes
To review, cover the notes column and look only at the cues. Answer each question out loud or on scrap paper, then uncover the notes and check. This is active recall instead of rereading: you are testing yourself, not just looking at your notes again.
Mark the cues you could not answer. Next time, start with those. Spread your reviews out, for example a day, a few days and a week after the lesson; our post on spaced repetition explains why spacing works.
Common mistakes
- Skipping the cue column. Without the questions, Cornell notes are ordinary notes with a wide margin.
- Writing cues that are just headings. "Photosynthesis" is a label; "What goes into photosynthesis and what comes out?" is a question you can answer.
- Copying the slides. If the slides are shared anyway, use the notes column for what the teacher said that is not on them.
- Leaving the summary for later. Later rarely comes. Two minutes at the end of the day is enough.
Where Quizbot fits
The cue column is a set of questions you wrote yourself, and that is worth keeping. When you want more practice than your cues give you, upload a photo or a scan of your notes to the AI quiz generator and get extra questions on the same material, with answers to check against.
Summary
- Split the page into notes, cues and a summary.
- Take notes in class; add questions in the cue column the same day.
- Sum the page up in a few sentences of your own.
- Review by covering the notes and answering the cues.
