Five note-taking methods and when to use each

The five note-taking methods at a glance

Some lectures arrive in neat numbered points. Others pour out facts faster than you can write. A meeting might wander between four topics. One note-taking method rarely fits all of them, which is why it's worth knowing a few.

Study skills guides usually describe five classic methods. California Polytechnic State University's version is a common reference, and it lists them like this (Cal Poly):

• Cornell: notes on the right, cue words in a left margin, review built in. Cal Poly suggests it for any lecture situation.
• Outline: main points on the left, details indented beneath them. Suits lectures presented in outline form.
• Mapping: a diagram that connects each idea to the others. Suits content that's heavy but well organised.
• Charting: columns set up in advance, one per category. Suits heavy content that's presented fast.
• Sentence: each new fact or idea on its own numbered line. Suits fast, content-heavy lectures that are only somewhat organised.

Here's how each one works, with a short example from the same lecture on the heart.

The Cornell method

Divide the page into a narrow left column and a wide right one, with a strip across the bottom. Cal Poly describes a left margin of about 2½ inches, leaving a six-inch area for notes. During the lecture, write notes on the right. Afterwards, add cue words or questions on the left, and a two-line summary at the bottom.

To review, cover the right side, read each cue and say as much as you can of the material beneath. That built-in self-test is its biggest strength. Cal Poly calls it organized and systematic for recording and reviewing notes. Its weakness is that the review only helps if you actually do it.

Example cue: "What keeps blood flowing one way?" Note: "Valves. Two between atria and ventricles, two at the exits of the ventricles."

The outline method

Write the main topic on the left, then indent supporting points and details beneath it. Outlining records content as well as relationships, in Cal Poly's words, and it gives you notes that are easy to scan later.

The cost is that it requires more thought in class to organise accurately, and Cal Poly warns it can't be used if the lecture is too fast. It works well when the lecturer follows a clear structure, and badly when they jump around.

Example: "Heart. Chambers: two atria, two ventricles. Circuits: pulmonary (to the lungs), systemic (to the body)."

The mapping method

Put the main topic in the middle of the page and branch out to related ideas, drawing lines between them. Cal Poly notes that relationships can easily be seen, and that little thinking is needed. The risk is that you may not hear changes in content from major points to facts, so everything ends up at the same level.

Maps feel productive to make, but making one isn't the same as learning it. In one study published in Science, students who practised recalling a text learned more than students who built concept maps of it, even when the final test asked them to create a concept map (Karpicke & Blunt, 2011). If you map, finish by covering the map and redrawing it from memory.

The charting method

If you know the lecture will compare several things on the same features, draw a table before it starts. Rows for the things, columns for the features. Then fill in the cells as you go. Cal Poly says it reduces the amount of writing necessary, and its main drawbacks are learning the system and finding the right categories in advance.

Charts make excellent revision sheets. Cover one column and try to fill it in.

The sentence method

Write each new fact, idea or topic as a numbered line, one after the other. It's the simplest method and the fastest to keep up with. Cal Poly notes it gets more or all of the information, but that you can't tell major points from minor ones in the numbered list. That means it needs a tidy-up afterwards: group the lines, add headings, cut repeats.

It's often the most practical method for meetings, where topics come in any order.

Does handwriting or typing matter?

Any of these methods works on paper or on a screen. A well-known study found that students who took notes on laptops did worse on conceptual questions than students who wrote by hand, and pointed to verbatim transcription as the reason (Mueller & Oppenheimer, 2014). A later replication found that performance did not consistently differ between groups (Morehead, Dunlosky & Rawson, 2019). The safer lesson is about what you write, not what you write with: put things in your own words instead of copying everything down.

How to pick a method

• The lecturer follows clear numbered points: outline.
• You want review built into the page: Cornell.
• The topic is about how ideas connect: mapping, then redraw it from memory.
• The lecture compares several things on the same features: charting.
• It's fast, dense and loosely organised, or it's a meeting: sentence, then tidy up the same day.

You can mix them, too. Many people take sentence notes in a fast lecture, then rewrite them as a Cornell page or a chart when they review.

Whatever you choose, test yourself on it

No method helps much if the notes are only reread. The step that matters is turning them into questions and answering from memory. Our guide to studying from your own notes shows how to do that with any of these formats.

Once your notes are written, Lumyo gives each one a summary and a category automatically, and you can ask questions across the notes you choose. Each answer cites the line it came from, so you can check it against what you wrote.