The Cornell Method of note-taking is highly effective, see if it works for you.
Divide your sheet of paper, as the diagram, so you have a wide left margin (the recall area) and a deep (summary area) at the bottom. Leaving the rest of the sheet for the notes you take while attending the class or meeting.
Write notes in the ‘note taking area’. After the event fill in any gaps in your notes, try to leave some white space between points. For each major point or idea covered in your notes write a ‘cue word’ or ‘keyword’ in the recall area of your sheet.
For example: If your notes were about ‘note taking methods’ and you had a section describing the Cornell Method then you would probably write ‘Cornell’ or ‘Cornell Method’ in your recall area aligned with the specific notes.
Use the summary area to write a brief summary of what your sheet contains – it may be useful to colour code this area. The summary will help you to find relevant notes later when you need to review them – this is especially useful for students when revising for exams or writing an assignment.
The Cornell Method of note-taking can be used as a powerful aid to recalling information.
Test your memory and knowledge by putting another sheet of paper over the ‘note taking area’ so just the ‘recall area’ is visible. Use the phases in your recall area as your cue and recite as much information about each point as you can remember – check what you have remembered with your main notes. You will quickly find where the gaps in your knowledge are.
More about the Cornell Note-taking method.