What's in the PDF

Print page 2 or page 3 depending on your paper size — you don't need both. Each page is a single sheet: cue column on the left, notes column on the right, and a summary strip across the bottom.

How to use it

The Cornell method was developed at Cornell University to fix a specific problem: students take notes during class, then never look at them again in a useful way. Splitting the page into three zones builds review into the page itself.

  1. During class or reading, use the Notes column. Write in short phrases, not full sentences. Leave gaps between ideas — you'll fill them in later, and cramped notes are hard to review.
  2. Within a day, fill in the Cues column. Reread what you wrote and add a keyword or question in the left margin for each idea. This is the step most students skip, and it's the one that actually makes the page useful later — the cues are what you'll quiz yourself with.
  3. At the bottom, write the Summary. Two or three sentences, in your own words, summarising the whole page. This forces you to compress and restate the material instead of just rereading it, which is a meaningfully different — and more effective — kind of review.

To actually study from a finished page, cover the Notes column with a sheet of paper and try to answer each cue from memory. That's the same principle behind active recall: testing yourself beats rereading.

Pairing it with spaced repetition

A single Cornell page is only useful if you come back to it. Once a page is filled in, treat the cue column like a stack of flashcard fronts and review the page again the next day, then a week later, then a month later.

If you'd rather not track that by hand, our free spaced repetition calculator will build the exact review schedule for you — enter your exam date and it tells you which days to pull each page back out, and can export the schedule straight to your calendar.

For the full method, including a worked example, see the complete Cornell Notes Method guide.