A PDF Generator for the Cornell Notetaking Method

September 10th, 2005 | by Ryan Stewart |

The Cornell Notetaking method has been on the rise for several years now as teachers and students make a more concerted effort to organize the deluge of information presented in classes, texts, and media. Wikipedia says,

Cornell notes, also called the Cornell note-taking system, is a widely-used notetaking system devised in the 1950s by Walter Pauk, an education professor at Cornell University. Pauk advocated its use in his best-selling How to Study in College. Its popularity has risen dramatically in the 2000s, particularly with the advent of education reform. For example, the New York Public Education System is implementing it, while most southern californian schools (such as the garden grove unified school district) are slowly switching to using it.

Cornell University likes to explain the method by example (pdf).

While it’s easy enough to divide the paper into three sections, I wanted to create a tool that would allow students to develop the habit of taking notes using the Cornell Method. This PDF generator allows the user to choose between three note areas (ruled, blank, or grid) as well print duplex versions of his/her note paper.

Cornell Notetaking Method Custom PDF Generator

Be sure to take a look at all of the advanced options available. Please leave notes for improvement in the comments section of this post.

LINK to Cornell Notetaking Method PDF Generator

  1. 4 Responses to “A PDF Generator for the Cornell Notetaking Method”

  2. By xvcefj on Nov 17, 2007 | Reply

    hi,

    what a great idea. thanks for making the pdf generator available. i’m hoping use a laptop to automate my notetaking for non-math classes. is it possible to make the pdf generator produce savable files that can be opened in a pdf reader (e.g. Adobe Acrobat Reader) with the ability to type notes in field(s). For example, if the pdf generator options produced a RULED page, each line would be a field; and if the options produced a BLANK page the entire page would be one big field in which text could be typed, etc. Of course the saving of these edited files would be the responsibility of the user. I hope this is possible. thanks.

  3. By Tom Strong on Dec 7, 2007 | Reply

    FYI: The top and bottom holes on the “3 Hole” optiong are about 3/16″ too short in span from the center hole. I noticed this when I printed onto a pre-punched paper.

    Have you considering allowing for a small graphic, like a logo in the top left column and a option for text or a graphic for the “Class Name”?

    Thanks.

  4. By olga on Dec 20, 2007 | Reply

    Thanks I learn to use this year at college and is great to find the generator.

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