Cornell Notes: How to Take Them (Example + Template)

Cornell notes are a note-taking method that divides each page into three parts: a wide column for the notes you take in class, a narrow left-hand cue column for questions you add afterward, and a short summary at the bottom. To study, you cover the notes and answer the cue questions from memory.

Walter Pauk, a longtime Cornell University education professor who directed its reading and study skills center, devised the system in the 1950s and popularized it in his 1962 book How to Study in College. It has outlasted most study fads because the layout builds two good habits: reviewing your notes soon after class, and testing yourself instead of rereading.

Below you'll find the layout, a filled-in example from an intro psychology lecture, a template you can copy, and, at the end, the review routine that turns the cue column into a self-quiz.

What are Cornell notes?

A Cornell page has three zones, and each one is filled in at a different time.

The order is what separates Cornell notes from an ordinary notebook. You capture first, come back and turn what you captured into questions, then test yourself on those questions. The cue column stays blank during class.

How to take Cornell notes, step by step

Study guides often summarize Pauk's process as the five Rs: record, reduce, recite, reflect, and review. The steps below follow them, with setup and the summary split out.

Step 1: Set up the page

Draw a vertical line about a third of the way in from the left edge. Leave the bottom five or so lines (about two inches) for the summary. Write the course, date, and lecture topic at the top. Rule a few pages before class so you aren't drawing lines while the lecturer talks.

Step 2: Record (during class)

Write in the notes column only. Use short phrases, not full sentences, and skip a line between ideas so you have room to add things later. Put a "?" next to anything you didn't follow. If the slides will be posted, don't copy them: write what the lecturer says that isn't on the slide, such as the example, the explanation, the "this will be on the exam." Our guide on how to take lecture notes covers in-class capture in more detail.

Step 3: Reduce (the same day)

Within a day, read through the notes. Fill gaps and answer your "?" marks from the textbook or a classmate. Then, beside each chunk of notes, write a question in the cue column that the chunk answers: one cue per idea, not one per line. Writing the questions forces you to decide what each chunk is actually about.

Step 4: Summarize

At the bottom, write two or three sentences that capture the page's main point. If you can't, you don't understand the material yet, which is better to learn now than the week of the exam.

Step 5: Recite

Cover the notes column, answer each cue out loud, then uncover and check. Put a dot next to every cue you missed or only half answered.

Step 6: Reflect and review

Add a line connecting this lecture to earlier ones ("Extinction looks like forgetting, but spontaneous recovery shows it isn't"). Then recite again over the following days. The full review routine is at the end of this guide.

Cornell notes example: an intro psychology lecture

Here is one filled-in page from a lecture on classical conditioning. The right column is what you'd write in class; the left column and summary were added that evening.

Summary: Classical conditioning is learning by association: when a neutral stimulus is repeatedly paired with one that already triggers a reflex, the neutral stimulus alone comes to trigger a similar response. The learned response fades if the pairing stops but can return after a break, so extinction suppresses learning rather than erasing it.

What makes this page easy to study from: every cue is a question an exam could ask, not a label like "Extinction"; no cue gives away its answer; and the unresolved taste-aversion row keeps its "?" so the answer gets checked and then tested.

Free Cornell notes template

Copy this into a document, or use it as a guide for ruling a paper page:

Course: _________  Lecture: _________  Date: _____
--------------------------------------------------
CUES (after class) | NOTES (during class)
~1/3 of the width  | ~2/3 of the width
                   |
Q: _______________ | - Main idea
                   |   - detail / example
                   |   - ? anything unclear
                   |
Q: _______________ | - Main idea
                   |   - detail / example
--------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY (2-3 sentences, own words, notes closed):

--------------------------------------------------
Missed on recall (dates): ________________________

How to set it up on paper or digitally

• Paper: rule pages in advance or print the template. To recite, fold the page along the line.
• Google Docs or Word: a two-column table with the left column a third of the width, plus a merged bottom row for the summary. Save the page as a .docx file and you can also make flashcards from the Word document.
• iPad (GoodNotes, Notability): import a Cornell page as a PDF template, or draw the lines once and duplicate the page.
• Notion or Obsidian: a toggle or folded callout does the cue column's job: the question shows, the answer stays hidden until you open it. See Notion for studying.

Paper or screen matters less than you may have heard. A well-known 2014 study found that students who handwrote their notes did better on conceptual questions than laptop users, but a 2021 replication found no clear difference in quiz scores. A 2024 meta-analysis of 24 studies found a small edge for handwriting on achievement (g = 0.25). Pick the format you won't get distracted on.

Cornell notes for math, science, and other subjects

The three zones stay the same; what goes in them changes.

• Math and physics: put worked examples in the notes column, one step per line. Cues become "When do I use the chain rule instead of the product rule?" or a fresh problem to solve. The summary lists the method's steps. For more, see how to study math.
• Biology and anatomy: sketch diagrams in the notes column. Cues become "Trace blood from the right atrium to the aorta" or "Label the parts of a nephron," answered by drawing on scrap paper.
• History and social sciences: cues become "why" and "what changed" questions ("Why did the Treaty of Versailles anger Germany?"). The summary states the argument, not just events.
• Textbook reading: Cornell pairs well with the SQ3R reading method: your SQ3R questions go in the cue column and your recited answers on the right.

Not sure Cornell suits your classes? Our comparison of note-taking methods shows when outlines, maps, or charts fit better.

Do Cornell notes actually work?

The layout itself has little direct research behind it; the habits it builds have a lot. The best-documented test we found is small. In a 2012 classroom study, two sections of a high school child development course were compared over three unit tests: one section was taught Cornell notes and required to use them, and the other took notes however they liked. With 16 students per section, scores were essentially identical.

The authors noted they had no way to tell whether students actually studied from their notes. Still, it fits what you'd expect: a page layout on its own doesn't change much. What has strong evidence is what you do with the page:

• Reviewing notes matters more than taking them. A 2006 meta-analysis of 33 studies found that taking notes and reviewing them had a substantial effect on learning. An earlier analysis of 57 studies found that the benefit of taking notes on its own was modest.
• Self-testing beats rereading. In Roediger and Karpicke's 2006 study, students who read a passage once and then took a recall test remembered 56% of it a week later, versus 42% for students who read it twice. Covering your notes and answering the cues is the same kind of test. Our active recall guide covers the wider evidence.

So Cornell notes work to the extent that you use the cue column. If you never cover the right side and quiz yourself, they're ordinary notes with a wide margin.

Common Cornell notes mistakes

• Writing cues during class. You'll miss what the lecturer says next, and same-day cues are better because you can see the whole lecture.
• Topic labels instead of questions. "Extinction" gives you nothing to answer. "What happens to the CR when the metronome keeps sounding without food?" does.
• Cues that contain the answer. "Extinction means the CR fades" is a note, not a cue.
• Skipping the summary. It takes two minutes and shows you whether you understood the page.
• Rereading instead of reciting. The most common mistake, and the one that matters most.

How to study from Cornell notes: a one-week review routine

Most students write cues, then study by rereading the notes column. That throws away the point of the layout. The cue column exists so you can practice retrieval: pulling the answer out of memory before you see it. Each review session goes like this:

1. Cover the notes column. Fold the page, or lay a sheet of paper over it.
2. Answer each cue out loud or in writing. Say a full answer, not "I know this one."
3. Uncover and check. Be strict: a vague answer counts as a miss.
4. Mark misses. A dot by the cue, or a date on the "missed" line of the template.
5. Re-quiz only the marked cues at the end of the session, then the whole page on the next review.

Spread the sessions out instead of doing them all at once:

The spaced repetition guide explains why these gaps work. Cues you miss twice are worth turning into flashcards: each cue is already a card front, and our notes-to-flashcards workflow shows how to do it quickly.