Cornell notes page
US Letter Cornell notes page, college ruled, 25 lines for notes
Cornell notes pagestringmash.com/cornell-notes-template
How to use the page
Take your notes in the wide column on the right during the lecture or while you read. Keep them short, and leave a few lines between ideas so there's room to add to them later.
Soon after, read them back and write a question or a key word in the cue column beside each idea. Then write the main points of the page in two or three sentences in the summary box.
To revise, cover the notes column and answer the cues out loud. The University of Cincinnati's guide suggests doing this through the term rather than saving it for the week before the exam.
Print as many pages as you need. Choose college ruled, wide ruled or no lines at all, and turn on Topic and date for a line at the top of each sheet.
The layout
| Part | Size on this page | What goes in it |
|---|---|---|
| Cue column | 2 1/2 inches from the left edge of the paper | Questions and key words, added after class |
| Notes | The rest of the width, down to the summary | Your notes, taken in class or while reading |
| Summary | The bottom 2 inches of the ruled area | The page's main points in a few sentences |
| Topic and date | A line at the top, if you turn it on | What the notes are about, so they're easy to find |
Where the layout comes from
Walter Pauk, an education professor at Cornell University, devised the system in the 1950s and set it out in his book How to Study in College. Cornell's Learning Strategies Center still teaches it.
Guides based on Pauk's version give the cue column as 2 1/2 inches wide, with about six inches left for notes on a US Letter sheet. The University of Cincinnati's guide uses those figures. At the foot, Pauk's book leaves five to seven lines, or about two inches, for the summary.
This template draws the cue column 2 1/2 inches in from the paper's edge and the summary box 2 inches tall, at true size on Letter or A4. Home printers can't print to the edge, so the notes column is about 5 1/2 inches wide here. With college ruled lines, a Letter page has 25 lines for notes and six in the summary.
Plain paper too
If you want the ruling without the columns, lined paper has wide, college and narrow ruled sheets, UK 8 mm feint and margin, and three-line handwriting paper. For maths notes, graph paper prints square and dot grids the same way.
Questions
What are Cornell notes?
A way of laying out a page of notes in three parts: a narrow cue column on the left, a wide notes column on the right and a summary across the bottom. Walter Pauk of Cornell University devised it in the 1950s.
How wide is the cue column?
2 1/2 inches in Pauk's layout, and in this template, measured from the left edge of the paper. The summary at the foot is about 2 inches tall.
What do I write in the cue column?
Questions and key words that point to the notes beside them, written after class. When you revise, cover the notes and answer the cues.
Can I print it on A4?
Yes. Choose A4 under Paper. The cue column and summary keep their sizes, and the notes column takes the rest of the width.
Can I get it without lines?
Yes. Set Lines to No lines for blank boxes, which suit diagrams and maths working.
Why are the lines the wrong distance apart?
The print was scaled. Set the scale to 100% or Actual size in the print dialog, with the same paper size chosen here.
Sources
- Wikipedia: Cornell Notes
- University of Cincinnati Learning Commons: The Cornell Method for Note-Taking
- Cornell University Learning Strategies Center: The Cornell Note Taking System
- Wikipedia: Ruled paper
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