During the past summer vacation I read at lifehacker.com an article titled "Geek to Live: Take study-worthy lecture notes". This article introduced me to the Cornell Note-taking method. I most say that although the Cornell method looked interesting, I wasn't sure about it's effectiveness. So, as a true scientist, I tested it over a whole semester.
The Cornell note-taking method was developed by Walter Pauk (1950s) in order to help students learn better. According to the method, a paper sheet is separated into three areas: the Notes area, the Cues area, and the Summary area. The Notes area, which is the largest, is for taking notes during the lecture. The other two areas are not to be used during lecture time. After the lecture, the student should (I made it bold because I barely now someone who actually does it) review their lecture notes. When doing so, on the Cues area important key-words or questions are to be written down and the whole page is to be summarized using a few (7-12) sentences in the Summary area. Much more information about the Cornell method can easily be find via Google.
To test the effectiveness of this method I created my own notebook, all pages printed from one of the many Cornell generators out there. I used this note book for my Cell Neurophysiology course. My way of taking notes during lectures is to write down everything the professor says, without trying to organize it too much or understand it; I like to record first, understand later. Since the Notes area is smaller then a regular notebook page size, each lecture took me about 6 pages. After the first lecture I kind of forced myself to review my notes and fill in the Cues and Summary areas. Turned out, that reviewing lecture notes using this system was much more pleasant and easy then usual, although Cell Neurophysiology is one the toughest mandatory courses for the Neuroscience program. After a few weeks I realized that the smaller Notes area was the trick. First, when looking at the page there was less text to read and therefore less intimidating. Second, I issued each page as one unit of notes to process, therefore I didn't try to summary and organize the whole lecture (which could take a long time) but rather one unit at a time; processing one page at a time. The Cues area was used by me to record names, dates and important key-words. Anything I wrote in the Cues area was written parallel to it's source in the Notes area, creating a sort-of index system where by looking in the Cues area for a key-word I can find the lecture notes regarding that word. In the Summary area I tried to summary each paragraph in the Notes area using one and only one sentence. Of course some paragraphs required more then one sentence, but on the other hand, some weren't worth summarizing at all.
Our Cell Neurophysiology course is really difficult. It requires understanding of molecular biology, chemistry and lots of physics (especially electricity). While most of my classmates struggled to keep up with the professor and understand what he is talking about, for me everything was clear. Using the Cornell system not only "forced" me to review my notes, but also to review them effectively.
A few days ago our test results arrived. Out of 146 students taking this course I scored the third highest score - 95, my highest score so far. I truly belief that the Cornell method helped a lot in gaining this high score. By reviewing and summarizing my lecture notes during the entire semester, and not only during the days before the exam, I earned a better understanding of the neurophysiology and therefore was able to ace the exam.
For the coming semester I've already decided that all my notebooks will be according to the Cornell method. All I need to do now is find a cheap way to print and bind all these notebooks.
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The Cornell note-taking method was developed by Walter Pauk (1950s) in order to help students learn better. According to the method, a paper sheet is separated into three areas: the Notes area, the Cues area, and the Summary area. The Notes area, which is the largest, is for taking notes during the lecture. The other two areas are not to be used during lecture time. After the lecture, the student should (I made it bold because I barely now someone who actually does it) review their lecture notes. When doing so, on the Cues area important key-words or questions are to be written down and the whole page is to be summarized using a few (7-12) sentences in the Summary area. Much more information about the Cornell method can easily be find via Google.
To test the effectiveness of this method I created my own notebook, all pages printed from one of the many Cornell generators out there. I used this note book for my Cell Neurophysiology course. My way of taking notes during lectures is to write down everything the professor says, without trying to organize it too much or understand it; I like to record first, understand later. Since the Notes area is smaller then a regular notebook page size, each lecture took me about 6 pages. After the first lecture I kind of forced myself to review my notes and fill in the Cues and Summary areas. Turned out, that reviewing lecture notes using this system was much more pleasant and easy then usual, although Cell Neurophysiology is one the toughest mandatory courses for the Neuroscience program. After a few weeks I realized that the smaller Notes area was the trick. First, when looking at the page there was less text to read and therefore less intimidating. Second, I issued each page as one unit of notes to process, therefore I didn't try to summary and organize the whole lecture (which could take a long time) but rather one unit at a time; processing one page at a time. The Cues area was used by me to record names, dates and important key-words. Anything I wrote in the Cues area was written parallel to it's source in the Notes area, creating a sort-of index system where by looking in the Cues area for a key-word I can find the lecture notes regarding that word. In the Summary area I tried to summary each paragraph in the Notes area using one and only one sentence. Of course some paragraphs required more then one sentence, but on the other hand, some weren't worth summarizing at all.
Our Cell Neurophysiology course is really difficult. It requires understanding of molecular biology, chemistry and lots of physics (especially electricity). While most of my classmates struggled to keep up with the professor and understand what he is talking about, for me everything was clear. Using the Cornell system not only "forced" me to review my notes, but also to review them effectively.
A few days ago our test results arrived. Out of 146 students taking this course I scored the third highest score - 95, my highest score so far. I truly belief that the Cornell method helped a lot in gaining this high score. By reviewing and summarizing my lecture notes during the entire semester, and not only during the days before the exam, I earned a better understanding of the neurophysiology and therefore was able to ace the exam.
For the coming semester I've already decided that all my notebooks will be according to the Cornell method. All I need to do now is find a cheap way to print and bind all these notebooks.
=-=-=-=-=
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