Notes

Many students struggle with effective note-taking, a skill that is very important for academic success; students who use the Cornell system often do better than students with their own techniques. The Cornell note-taking system is an effective strategy for freshman students in university because it uses minimal space to provide a lot of information, making the student learn and remember information during the note-taking process.
The Cornell note taking method got its name from Walter Pauk at Cornell University. Walter Pauk, a director of the reading study center at Cornell University and an author of numerous study skills texts developed Cornell note taking in the 1950s. Pauk was influenced greatly by the SQ3R Method, a method for reading and studying that stands for surveying, questioning, reading, reciting, and reviewing (Broe, 2013). The note taking system is an active learning strategy that focuses on understanding the concepts of the subject, and remembering it through reflective questions. All students follow the same outline for this system, dividing the page into 3 sections, the note taking column, the cue column and the summary space.
The note taking column is used to take notes that in are provided the lecture; these notes should contain meaningful information that the student can make connections to previous knowledge, which is more effective for remembering in the long term, this is the recording step in the system. The cue column is used to reduce the notes; the column should contain key words or phrases from the note column that can be categorized into their own themes or concepts. The third step of the system is the reflecting step, this step is very important because students who do not reflect on ideas and concepts often forget a majority of the information within 24 hours, in this step the student goes back and looks at the cue column to re-examine the notes and organize them. The 3rd section of the page is the summary space, this space is used to create a summary of the page, preferably within 24 hours, students should write questions about what the lecture is talking about and how will the information be used in the future. The final step of the system is review, before each lecture, a student can look at his notes and easily remember what the previous lecture contained, and provide context for future information.
Since memory can be short lived and the time between the lectures and tests is significant, note taking is crucial for remembering the material and integrating it into tests and assignments. Note taking is a difficult task that requires comprehension and production of notes, this process can be difficult for certain students, which is why many are not successful at note taking. Note taking is not taught in high school, and students are expected to be able to take effective notes by college, but they can’t. To better comprehend the material, students should have good notes with main points and added detail (Borr ,2012). This is where the Cornell note-taking system comes in; Students in science courses implementing the Cornell Note-taking method had a 10-12% higher average than students in the previous semester not using this method (Borr, 2012). By being in a state of constant thinking and reflection on the topic, the student transfers his knowledge from short term to long term, where information is moved from a fragile electro-chemical state to the neurons located in the brain (O’Brien Moran, 2017).
The Cornell note-taking system is effective for freshman students because students are not used to university, they are used to high school where information is spoon-fed to everyone, and explanations are available at any time, many students in high school do not review any material because reviews are part of the curriculum, and take it for granted, even though reviewing is the key to remembering information. The Cornell note-taking system forces the student to be more attentive and therefore remember more and important information. Additional research was conducted by Duane Broe, where 2 classes of algebra students were taught Cornell note-taking and 2 were not, the classes received the same material but different note taking techniques. Data was collected on the classes’ notes and achievements using rubrics and quizzes/tests.
At the end of the 9 week study, the students who used the Cornell system had the same achievements on the quizzes as the standard class, but significantly greater note quality of the intervention classes than that of the base classes. In conclusion, Cornell Note-taking did not have an impact on student achievement, but it did have an impact on note-taking quality (Broe, 2013) and as discussed earlier, note taking is the foundation of academic success.
More research was done that solidifies this claim, Mari Borr’s research was conducted in order to test the effectiveness of the Cornell system, 2 classes with 16 students, one with 14 females and 2 males, and the other with 12 females and 4 males, only one of the groups was taught to use the Cornell note taking system. After 5 tests the data supported the null hypothesis – there is no difference in student-choice note-taking and Cornell note-taking on student performance in a high school Family and Consumer Sciences class (2012 Borr).
This test that Borr conducted himself contradicts what he writes earlier in his paper, he says that this could be due to several factors, (a) Child Development is an elective class with mostly sophomores enrolled, (b) both sections were required to take notes, (c) there was no way to determine if notes were actually used for studying, (d) learning styles among students vary, and (e) there was some resistance to note-taking in both sections and to the Cornell method in Section B (Borr 2012). However, unlike Broe, Borr did not check the student’s quality of notes, which is one of the systems biggest pro’s, many other sources that he cited like earlier in his paper state that the Cornell system affects achievements positively.


The system’s division of the page is a powerful tool that requires attention to use, and attention is what makes short term memory turn into long term memory, although the system doesn’t affect grades, it greatly improves the quality of notes, which prepares students better for college and university. it also teaches the student to be more independent by using the 5 steps. This system is the most effective for students to transition from high school to university, while being effective with time.