How to Take Effective Notes for Better Studying, Research Shows

Students and professionals have used note-taking systems for decades, but not all methods help memory in the same way. Peer-reviewed psychology research and Cornell University's own documentation of its note-taking system point to specific, testable practices rather than general advice.

Use a layout that separates notes, cues and summary

The Cornell Note-Taking System was developed in the 1950s by Walter Pauk, then a teaching assistant at Cornell University, and popularized in his 1962 book 'How to Study in College,' according to Cornell's alumni magazine. The page is split into a wider right-hand column for notes taken during a lecture or reading, a narrower left-hand column left blank during note-taking and filled in later with cue questions, and a summary section at the bottom.

Handwriting outperforms typing for understanding

A 2014 study by Pam Mueller of Princeton University and Daniel Oppenheimer, then at UCLA, had students watch lectures and take notes either longhand or on a laptop with internet access disabled, across three experiments with 67 to 151 participants each. Laptop users wrote more — an average of 309 words in the first experiment, versus 173 for longhand writers — but performed worse on questions that required conceptual understanding.

According to a summary of the study by the Journalist's Resource, the gap appeared because typing is fast enough to let students transcribe lectures nearly word for word, even when told to paraphrase, while the slower pace of handwriting forces selective summarizing that requires processing the material rather than just recording it.

Review by testing yourself, not by rereading

A widely cited 2013 review in Psychological Science in the Public Interest, led by John Dunlosky of Kent State University, evaluated ten common study techniques and rated most of them as low utility, according to a summary published by the Association for Psychological Science. Only two techniques — practice testing and distributed (spaced) practice — received the highest utility rating.

The report's lead author, John Dunlosky, said he was surprised that techniques students use heavily, such as rereading and highlighting, provide only minimal benefit, according to the Association for Psychological Science release, adding that effective strategies are often absent from the educational psychology textbooks used to train teachers.

A step-by-step approach combining the research

1. Before the lecture or reading session, set up a page with a wide notes column, a narrower cue column left blank, and a summary section at the bottom, following the Cornell layout.
2. Take notes by hand where possible, writing ideas in your own words rather than copying phrases verbatim, since typing tends to produce verbatim transcription that research links to weaker conceptual understanding.
3. Soon after the session, fill in the left-hand cue column with questions that the notes answer, a step Pauk said helps clarify meaning and strengthen memory.
4. Write a short summary of the material in your own words at the bottom of the page.
5. When studying, cover the notes column and try to answer each cue question from memory before checking the answer — a form of practice testing rated high utility by the Dunlosky review.
6. Spread review sessions across several days or weeks instead of a single cram session, since distributed practice was rated as high utility alongside practice testing.

What the evidence does not settle

The Mueller and Oppenheimer study tested note-taking during lecture viewing in controlled experimental settings, not all real-world classroom or workplace conditions. The Dunlosky review similarly evaluated techniques across a range of studies and ages but noted that effectiveness can depend on the type of material and the test used to measure learning, according to the sources reviewed for this piece.