Notetaking

Notetaking--the Cornell Method

The Cornell method was created at Cornell University to help students there take better notes in lectures. It offers several advantages. It results in more organized notes. It allows students to quickly and identify key words and key concepts from a lecture. The notes can easily be used as a study guide for exam preparation. The arrangement of information is aesthetically pleasing and easy to scan, making it easy to locate particular pieces of information. This method can be used to take notes from a lecture, from a text (like your Science or Social Studies textbook) or from the Internet.

Here's how it works: >
 * 1) **Divide the paper**
 * Use loose leaf notebook paper and write on one side of the page only.
 * Divide the paper vertically by drawing a line from top to bottom about 5 cm from the left side of the page.
 * (These measurements are given in inches, but you can get centimetres by multiplying by 2.5)


 * 1) **Documentation**
 * Write the following information at the top of each page: student name, course, date, and page number.
 * It's important to do this so you know which course each page is for, when you studied this material, and where you can find it in your text (for cross-referencing later). If the page number is not relevant (like, you're taking notes on a class discussion about a short story) you could choose to write the name of the story, or the chapter in the novel that was being discussed.
 * 1) **Record notes**
 * During lecture, record the main ideas and concepts on the right side of the page. (Area "C") This is the notes column.
 * Rephrase the information in your own words before writing it down. This helps you remember the information. Also, when you compare it with someone else, you can make sure that you both have the same MEANING for what was discussed!
 * Skip one line between ideas and several lines between topics. This gives you room to add information if necessary, and also makes your notes neater.
 * Avoid writing in complete sentences; use symbols and abbreviations instead. Studying a play? You probably don't want to write the main characters' names a million times! "LY" is easier to write over and over than "Lysander" for example.
 * 1) **Review and Clarify**
 * As soon after class as possible, review the notes in the right column and clarify any ambiguous information.
 * Compare the information with the book and/or other students' notes.
 * Then pull the main ideas, concepts, terms, places, dates, and people from the right column and record them in the left-hand recall column.(Area "A")
 * 1) **Summarize**
 * Prepare a summary of the lecture material and record it at the end of the notes. (Area "B") (You might not need an Area C on each page...at the end of one day's notes should be enough.
 * The summary may be in sentences or short phrases. It should include only the main ideas from the lecture. NO DETAILS--those are in Area C !
 * 1) **Study**
 * Use all sections of the notes to prepare for tests and exams. You can cover up Area C and quiz yourself from Area A (what does this term mean? why is this date important?). You can read over your summaries in Area B to make sure you remember the main points--and if you aren't clear on them, read over Area C again, and so on.

Overall Cornell Notes: The format provides the perfect opportunity for following through with **the 5 R's of note-taking**. Here they are: 1. **Record.** During the lecture, record in the main column as many meaningful facts and ideas as you can. Write legibly. If you are taking notes from a text, make these notes while you are reading the section. 2. **Reduce.** As soon after as possible, summarize these ideas and facts concisely in the Recall Column. Summarizing clarifies meanings and relationships, reinforces continuity, and strengthens memory. Also, it is a way of preparing for examinations gradually and well ahead of time. 3. **Recite.** Now cover the column, using only your jottings in the Recall Column as cues or "flags" to help you recall, say over facts and ideas of the lecture as fully as you can, not mechanically, but in your own words and with as much appreciation of the meaning as you can. Then, uncovering your notes, verify what you have said. This procedure helps to transfer the facts and ideas of your long term memory. 4. **Reflect.** Reflective students distill their opinions from their notes. They make such opinions the starting point for their own thinking about the subjects they are studying. Their thinking helps them to make sense out of their courses and academic experiences by finding relationships among them. Reflective students continually label and index their experiences and ideas, put them into structures, outlines, summaries, and frames of reference. They rearrange and file them. Best of all, they have an eye for the essential. Unless ideas are placed in categories, and reviewed, they will be soon forgotten. 5. **Review.** If you will spend 10 minutes every week or so in a quick review of these notes, you will retain most of what you have learned, and you will be able to use your knowledge to greater and greater effectiveness. Adapted from an article by the Academic Skills Center, Dartmouth College 2001

IMPORTANT FACT: The expectation at ATSS (and in most BC schools) is that you will spend 10 minutes every day (7 days a week) PER GRADE LEVEL doing homework and studying. At grade 9, this means 90 minutes EACH DAY, or 10 1/2 hours a week OUTSIDE OF CLASS doing assignments and studying. If you are not doing this minimum amount of work, you are not putting in your best effort. In grade 10, this becomes 11 hours 40 minutes per week. In grade 11, this is 12 hours 50 minutes per week In grade 12, expect to do 14 hours work outside of class each week.

And, since classes in Semester 1 go from September to the end of January, studying does NOT STOP over school holidays (like Christmas), and since classes in Semester 2 go from February -June, studying should also continue (even over Spring Break). Just because you aren't attending classes each day, doesn't mean your exams will go away! Don't bury your head in the sand!!