Free Cornell notes template: download the printable PDF or fill it in online and print. Cue column, notes and summary, plus how to use the method.
Free, no account and no email. Download the blank PDF, or type your notes into the template below: they are saved only in this browser, and Print sends just the sheet to your printer.
Download the blank Cornell notes template (PDF): one page, US Letter portrait, ruled, with spaces for the topic, class and date. Or fill in the template on this page and press Print; the printed page contains only your notes, not the rest of this website.
The Cornell method was developed in the 1950s by Walter Pauk, an education professor at Cornell University, and described in his book How to Study in College. It divides each page into three areas so that the notes you take in class are already set up for reviewing later.
The idea is that note-taking does not stop when the lecture ends. You record during class, then condense your notes into cues and a summary, then use the cues to test yourself. Pauk's book sets this out as five steps, often called the five Rs.
Topic: Photosynthesis. Class: Biology. In the notes column: Plants make glucose from light, water and CO2. Happens in chloroplasts. Light-dependent reactions in the thylakoid make ATP and NADPH and release O2. Calvin cycle in the stroma uses ATP, NADPH and CO2 to build sugar.
In the cue column, level with those notes: What does photosynthesis make, and from what? Where does it happen? What do the light reactions produce? What does the Calvin cycle use?
Summary: Photosynthesis turns light energy into chemical energy in two stages. The light reactions make ATP and NADPH and give off oxygen; the Calvin cycle uses them to turn carbon dioxide into sugar.
Your cue column is already a list of questions. Paste them into the printable flashcard maker as term and definition lines, or let the AI flashcard generator or the quiz generator make practice from your typed notes. The AI lecture notes tool organises pasted lecture text into notes, and audio transcription turns a recorded lecture into text (free account).
Time your review sessions with the Pomodoro study timer. More free tools are on the tools page.
Yes. The PDF download, the printable page and the online version are free, with no account and no email.
Walter Pauk, an education professor at Cornell University, developed the method in the 1950s and described it in his book How to Study in College.
Notes from class go in the large right-hand column. Questions and key words that point to those notes go in the narrow left cue column, written after class. A short summary of the whole page goes at the bottom.
Record, Reduce, Recite, Reflect and Review: take the notes, condense them into cues and a summary, quiz yourself from the cues, think about how the ideas connect, and go back over them regularly.
Yes. Type into the template on this page; it is saved automatically in this browser on this device and nothing is uploaded. Press Print to print it or save it as a PDF.
US Letter portrait, with a cue column about 2.5 inches wide and a summary area about 2 inches tall. It also prints on A4 if you choose fit to page in your print dialog.