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The Cornell Note Taking System

lsc.cornell.edu

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Re: The Cornell Note Taking System

#51

Post by kupopuffs »

motoboi wrote: post #50

I believe note systems are great! The only problem, and I see people talking too little about it, is that you need to create your own, for it to be effective. It's like trying to use spaced repetition with cards made by someone else, you loose 80% of the benefit. Creating, perfecting (and using) your own note system is what makes you a learning machine, as it let's you understand how your mind process and learn infor…

perhaps even before that, people in general still lack the discipline and practice of note taking

so a gentle reminder to start taking notes!

Re: The Cornell Note Taking System

#52

Post by 2OEH8eoCRo0 »

vl wrote: post #20
Veen wrote: post #11

The main thing I learned watching these videos is that Cornell students—or Americans more generally, perhaps—hold pens in a way that seems unusual to me. For example, with the thumb wrapped round the pen or with it gripped by the tips of all five fingers. Is that normal in the US? In the UK, I was taught to grip the pen with my thumb and forefinger tips and rest it on my middle finger. Most people I see writing hold…

The secret is that American school doesn’t really bother itself with that much teaching. Nobody teaches children how to hold pens properly, cursive writing, etc.

My teacher at that age did a spectacular job and was very attentive to my needs. I was ambidextrous and she made me pick a hand. I picked left. I'm left handed to this day.

Re: The Cornell Note Taking System

#53

Post by HideousKojima »

blahedo wrote: post #47

Ooooooh I have a burning hate for this system (the dislike is rational, the burning part is not entirely rational but justified). Way back in high school my AP history teacher not only taught us this (cool, that's part of his job) and checked that we were able to do it (reasonable), he required us to submit notes in this exact format, for every reading, all year, which he graded. After I determined that my comprehens…

My middle school and high school required Cornell notes, and they were a huge pain in the ass. Never used them since.

Re: The Cornell Note Taking System

#54

Post by karencarits »

quartesixte wrote: post #35
maphew wrote: post #24

The rash of "no way" responses makes me wonder: what note taking system(s) have you encountered that actually work for you? (And why, if known.) From someone who episodically takes notes in haphazard fashion and very rarely looks at them again, and thinks he's probably woefully working harder than he should as a result.

I type moderately fast (can hit 150 wpm, average 110wpm on typing tests) so one of my favorite methods is transcription. I just verbatim type out what the speaker is saying. I can keep up if I leave out filler words, blow past typos and ignore punctuation. If I need to recall I just go back and read it again. Edit: Why not record? Because people get weird about it, I’m not allowed to, or literally illegal. Also, play…

There are some open source projects now using Whisper from OpenAI to transcribe close to realtime, such as Buzz (https://github.com/chidiwilliams/buzz)

Re: The Cornell Note Taking System

#56

Post by core-utility »

quartesixte wrote: post #9

Goodness gracious. There is an entire generation of school children (at the very least in my locality) who were forced to use an incredibly poor implementation of this method by teachers who barely understood the intent themselves. On which we were punished for not doing correctly. The biggest gripe I had about this method was that the lessons in middle school and high school never had enough information density to m…

I was this generation, we literally got graded on how well we followed the format of taking notes this way. I hate(d) the system and would only do the bare minimum to get the grade, meanwhile leaving me with notes that were near useless to me because they couldn't just let me take notes outline style like a teacher 2 years prior had taught (and I voluntarily adopted because it happened to work well for me)

Re: The Cornell Note Taking System

#57

Post by throw0101c »

baq wrote: post #45
chazeon wrote: post #26

On a personal note, I found any form of notetaking is distraction for me to grasping information... I really don't understand how someone could take good note while also listen... I found this only when I starting my PhD. I hope I know this sooner. Also, notetaking in any designed system is worse than a blank piece of paper for me. Not sure if any one would agree.

that's right there in the article: > Research shows that taking notes by hand is more effective than typing on a laptop. IMHO this is an understatement made on purpose to stay as neutral in tone as possible and not offend anyone who disagrees. pen and paper note taking improves retention so much you shouldn't need the notes after you take them (well, unless you're writing down equations or whatever...)

>> Research shows that taking notes by hand is more effective than typing on a laptop.

A 2014 study:

* https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/09567976145245...

News article on it:

* https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-learning-secret...

Re: The Cornell Note Taking System

#58

Post by mindcrime »

blahedo wrote: post #47

Ooooooh I have a burning hate for this system (the dislike is rational, the burning part is not entirely rational but justified). Way back in high school my AP history teacher not only taught us this (cool, that's part of his job) and checked that we were able to do it (reasonable), he required us to submit notes in this exact format, for every reading, all year, which he graded. After I determined that my comprehens…

I'm reminded of a couple of my favorite quotes:

"Use only that which works, and take it from any place you can find it."

"Absorb what is useful, discard what is useless and add what is specifically your own"

~~ Bruce Lee

Re: The Cornell Note Taking System

#59

Post by quanticle »

vincent-manis wrote: post #41

This, like any system, works better for some individuals than others, depending on their learning style. I liked the presentation here, basically “try this, you may find it valuable”. I'm sure that some people found it useless, others very useful. When I was teaching, students would sometimes ask me for permission to record the lectures. I always said yes, because I know that some students learn best aurally, and fin…

    Teachers (or school systems) that mandate this system, and, even worse,
    GRADE NOTEBOOKS completely misunderstand the point of it. In K-12, one of
    the goals is to help students become effective learners, which involves
    students identifying the tools that help them learn best.
A single assignment forcing Cornell Notes (or any other note taking system) might be all right. Something like, "Here's a reading, please submit a summary of it in Cornell Notes format." That gets the kids to interact with the system, and it exposes students to something that they might find useful going forward. To force its use for an entire quarter or semester just sounds like sadism.

Furthermore, from what I can tell, the Cornell system is highly tied to paper (and lined letter/A4 sized paper at that), and is basically useless outside of a school/university context. It doesn't do much to structure your notes. Instead, the class itself is assumed to be providing the structure, and the notes combine with the class structure to provide an outline of your knowledge.

In the "real world", where information is coming at you from a dozen different sources, and it's up to you to provide your own structure, something like Cornell falls down, hard.

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