cornell note taking system monday, august 23, 2004

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Cornell Note Taking System Monday, August 23, 2004

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Cornell Note Taking System

Monday, August 23, 2004

First Step - PREPARATION

Use a large, loose-leaf notebook. Use only one side of the paper. (you then can lay your notes out to see the direction of a lecture.)

Draw a vertical line 2 1/2 inches from the left side of you paper. This is the recall column. Notes will be taken to the right of this margin. Later key words or phrases can be written in the recall column.

Second Step - DURING THE LECTURE

Record notes in paragraph form. Capture general ideas, not illustrative ideas.

Skip lines to show end of ideas or thoughts. Using abbreviations will save time.

Write legibly.

Third Step - AFTER THE LECTURE

Read through your notes and make it more legible if necessary. Now use the column. Jot down ideas or key words which give you the idea of the lecture. (REDUCE)

You will have to reread the lecturer's ideas and reflect in your own words.

Cover up the right-hand portion of your notes and recite the general ideas and concepts of the lecture. Overlap your notes showing only recall columns and you have your review.

Record the lecture as fully and as meaningfully as possible.

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Reduce ideas and facts to concise jottings and summaries as cues for Reciting, Reviewing, and Reflecting.

5 R's of note-taking are:• 1. Record. During the lecture, record in the main column as

many meaningful facts and ideas as you can. Write legibly.• 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 musings upon the subjects they are studying. Such musings aid them in making 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 vital-for the essential. Unless ideas are placed in categories, unless they are taken up from time to time for re-examination, they will become inert and 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 currently to greater and greater effectiveness.

Format:• Record the date, place, topic/title and presenter.• Number your pages.• Use dark ink and write on one side of the page. • Use a double entry note taking system (see "Cornell Note taking System"

handout)• Write neatly. Make notes complete and clear enough to understand when

you come back to them.• Use abbreviations. Feel free to develop your own set of abbreviations,

but please put a key at the top of the page so your notes can be understood.

• Highlight important items with asterisks(*) or draw circles or boxes around critical info. Mark important ideas, terms, concepts with different colors, underlines, or asterisks. Indentation, underscoring and starring are also effective for indicating relative importance of items. Show uncertainty with a circled question mark.

• Leave plenty of white space for later additions. Skip lines. Leave space between main ideas.

What to write• Definitely copy:• Anything written on the board or presented on an overhead.• Any info that is repeated or emphasized. Ways to emphasize include: tone

or gesture, repetition, illustration on board, reference to text, and use of cue words such as: finally, remember, most important, another cause, etc.

• All numbered or listed items.• All terms and definitions.• Examples.• New words and ideas.• If the instructor refers to the text, mark the page number in notes to refer.• When you cannot keep up with the speaker, jot down key nouns and

verbs so that you can return to the latter and ask questions/fill in gaps. Leave blanks for words, phrases or ideas you miss. Ask a classmate to fill in the gaps.

• Include comments the class makes that the professor agrees with.

Listening:

• Listen carefully to what is being said.• Pay attention to qualifying words (sometimes,

usually, rarely, etc.)• Notice signals indicating that a change of direction

is coming (but, however, on the other hand)• Look for meaning and implications; be an active

listener.

Additionally:

• Ask questions if permitted; if not, jot down questions in your notebook.

• Soon after the presentation, review your notes, rewrite skimpy or incomplete parts, and fill in gaps you remember but didn't record.

How to Study:• Study in chunks: 20-50 minute time periods followed by a

brief break (5-10 minutes) is the most effective way to study • Use daylight hours: an hour of studying during the day is

worth two at night! Do the work that requires the most concentration (typically reading) earliest in the day.

• Rank your six classes and be sure to spend time on your most challenging class everyday and early in the day.

• Study actively: ask yourself questions, review your notes regularly, discuss key concepts with peers and your teacher.

Create a Study Environment

• 1. Find a place to study and keep it for study only.• 2. Tool-up the environment with all study needs.• 3. Control noise level and the visual environment to

acceptable levels.• 4. Avoid relaxing while working; create a work

atmosphere.

When to Study

• 1. Best during the day and early evening; you'll remember better.

• 2. Best when there are the fewest competing activities in progress.

• 3. Best when adequate rest periods are provided.• 4. Stop studying when fatigue or lack of attention

occurs.

NINE WAYS TO AID YOUR MEMORY

• Be flexible. Experiment with many learning procedures. Be willing to abandon outmoded and faulty learning procedures so you will be free to acquire new and more efficient methods.

• Over learn. In order to retain anything learned, you must practice and reorganize it into your current ongoing activity. One way to do this is to incorporate the learned material as part of your present habit system. Use it in speaking and writing. Act out the material as a rehearsal of a part in a play-a process known as role-playing. This is especially helpful in learning a foreign language.

• Schedule. Schedule your study time so that the time at which something is learned or relearned is close to the time at which it will be used.

• Rephrase and explain. Try a little role-playing. Take the point of view of the teacher, for a change. Rephrase and explain the material, in your own words, to a classmate.

• Allow your classmate to criticize your presentation. Then let the classmate be the teacher, while you criticize. If you can't explain something, you don't really know it.

• Eliminate accidental and unrelated associations. Leave the television off and remove yourself from phone ringing distractions.

• Eliminate previous mistakes. Take note of all previous mistakes and make every effort to eliminate them from future practice. It has been shown experimentally that consciously reviewing mistakes, making note of exactly why they were incorrect, helps to reinforce the correct response.

• Decide on an order of importance. Some things are more important than others. In a particular study unit, decide what these are and organize the important material into an outline or framework. "Over-learn" that part of the lesson.

• Become emotionally involved. Assume the attitude that you fully believe the viewpoint of the author. Strive for perfection. You may never achieve it, but you will most certainly improve your performance. Learn to discuss your current beliefs calmly with people holding different attitudes. Cite authorities to back up your position.

• Use mechanical memory aids. When material is complicated, it may be necessary to use mechanical memory aids. For example, to learn the cardinal directions, north, east south and west, you can create the acronym “never eat soggy worms”.

ACTIVE STUDY• Learning takes time. Very few people have photographic memories.

Learning requires repetition- meaningful repetition. This is why active study techniques are so vitally important.

• The "recording disk" of the brain accepts new material much faster if it "hears," "sees," "feels," "tastes," and detects motion (kinetic energy) during input or recording time.

• Then too, the more times around the learning circuit, the longer lasting the impression. If you are able to place abstract ideas into diagrammatic form, you will remember the concept.

Mnemonics• Material that is difficult to master can be organized by finding the key words in each point,

noting the first letter, and arranging the letters into a sense or nonsense word (the sillier, the better). Examples:

• What are the qualities of a scientist? (mnemonic answer: PIPOC)• P erserverance• I ntelligence• P atience• O riginality• C uriosity

• Why did the U.S. enter World War I? (mnemonic answer: SPRENCZ)• S ubmarines, Germans lifted restrictions on use of• P ropaganda, British control of• R ussians overthrew the tsar• E conomic ties of U.S. with Britain and France• N eutrality, German violations of U.S.• C ultural ties with Britain• Z immerman telegram

Note:• In example 2, the student has devised a mnemonic based on

key words. If you have a basic understanding of each point, you ought to be able to write a complete essay from the mnemonic SPRENCZ.

• Example 1, however, represents the type of mnemonic a student could use to learn a short list of items for an objective test. If you need to memorize a long list of items such as the states in the union, alphabetize and learn in small "chunks."

• You can always depend on the alphabet. Break down a list, rearrange, put on a study card and master. In the example of learning the states in the union, it is easier to remember that there are four states whose names begin with "A," no "Bs," one "D," etc., then to try to memorize the list.

Study Cards• In printing study cards, you are using kinetic energy

(energy in motion), thus making the impression stronger on the brain, and you will be able to use the cards for over learning.

• Another reason for making study cards is that they are convenient to carry and flip through for mastery. Reading the cards silently, however, is too passive. Go over the cards orally. You will not master the cards by passively reading them.

• Learning requires the expenditure of energy. You must be actively engaged in producing the sounds, using muscles and burning energy to make the sound.

MemoryGeneral points to consider• focus attention on whatever needs to be remembered. If you intend to

remember something, you probably will.• You must understand that this subject is worth knowing and why.

Classify and associate information in groups of seven or fewer at a time.

• Overlearn through repetition.• Association is a key to memory:• You remember approximately 10 percent of what you read.• You remember approximately 20 percent of what you hear.• You remember approximately 30 percent of what you see.• You remember approximately 50 percent of what you hear and see

together.• You remember approximately 70 percent of what you say (if you think

as you are saying it).• You remember approximately 90 percent of what you do.

A WEEKLY FLOW CHART FOR STUDYING

PRE-READ TEXT

GO TO CLASS

ASK QUESTIONS OF INSTRUCTOR

TAKE NOTES

REVIEW & EDIT NOTES SAME DAY AS LECTURE

ASK YOURSELF QUESTIONS

OUTLINE MAJOR TOPICS

READ TEXT SELECTIVELY

DO HOMEWORK

REVIEW & INTEGRATE

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ASK QUESTIONS OF INSTRUCTOR