Why take Cornell Notes?

In the late 1800's, a German psychologist and researcher named Herman Ebbinghaus was the first to study forgetting and remembering.  His studies yielded that within 24 hours after a lecture, a person loses 50-80% of the information learned.  As days go on, more and more information is lost.  His results were plotted is what is known as the Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve.  This reveals a relationship between forgetting and time.  Information can be lost very quickly as it is learned so repetition is important to remember things.


Continued research on forgetting and remember from the University of Waterloo led to this information based on one hour lecture:
On Day 1, you enter knowing 0% of what will be covered (this is the baseline of the curve).  At the end of the lecture you know 100% of what you will know (this is the highest point of the curve).  By Day 2, if you have done nothing with the information you learned in the lecture, you will have lost 50-80%!  Our brains are constantly recording information on a temporary basis: scraps of conversation heard on the sidewalk, what the person in front of you is wearing...Because this information isn't necessary, our brains simply unload it at the end of the day, but what about the lecture?!  By Day 7, we remember even less and by Day 30 we only remember about 2-3% of what was discussed during the lecture!  Obviously, we can see the impact this might have on tests, and end of year exams!  This could cause some serious anxiety.

Good News: You can change this! A big signal to your brain is how often you repeat thing.  The more you go over information, the more you will remember if.  So here is the formula: Within 24 hours of getting new information, spend at least 10 minutes reviewing it and you will raise it back up to 100%.  Review it again within 7 days and it will only take 5 minutes to reactive your brain.  Do this each week and after 30 days of learning the new material, you'll only need to review it for 2-4 minutes.  No cramming needed here because we managed our time correctly.

More recent studies by Marzano, Pickering, and Pollock in 2001, identify that summarizing and note taking is key to taking information and putting it in the long term memory.  It helps to promote better comprehension because you have to put the information in your own words.  A good set of notes can be a study guide to help you review the information on a daily basis.

So in AVID, we use Cornell Notes to help us because it is a form of note taking that acts as a study guide.  We have to go over the information a few times which helps us repeat what we've learned allowing us to do better on tests.  This results in a higher GPA and more opportunities!

Do you have more questions about note taking?  Have you seen an improvement in your grades since you've been practicing taking Cornell Notes?  Make sure to leave a comment below.

Remember:

“One learns through the processing of information by the brain.  Words very, very seldom imprint themselves on the brain; but ones thinking does.” -Walter Pauk

Some of what is written was adapted from an unknown author.  The information was presented at a meeting that Mrs. Triplett attended and no author was given.