Useful ways of taking notes: Cornell notes and the method of Bill Gates

Taking notes is one of the essential ways to study. Yet, it can be rather draining especially if a class or a meeting is lasting for too long and a person is not presenting information in a straightforward way. In order to make this parts of a learning process more enjoyable and rewarding, you can check some of the methods for taking notes collected in this article.

Note there is no ideal way of taking notes for any possible situations. Sometimes you might find one way more useful whereas in another situation it might not be working. In order to make it easier for you to navigate through the options, you will find specific information in this article about the best time to deploy these methods.

Cornell notes

One of the popular ways of writing information down is known as Cornell notes. This method is based on a division of all of the information and thoughts you have during the process of writing them down. In addition to it, the method is supposed to make it possible for you to have some conclusions which are also written under the entire information.

How is the method used?

In order to deploy such a method, you should take a sheet of paper and divide it into two parts. The first part is earmarked for your key thought, whereas the second one is used generally for various notes. Underneath, you should right down the conclusions.

It will be a good idea to keep the left part of the page neat and do not overfill it with too much information. You do not have to right anything there right away during the class, the best time to do it will be once the class is over so that you still remember the material and can distinguish the key information.

An easy way to make conclusions is to make up questions on the topic and try to answer them.

When is such a method particularly useful?

It is particularly recommended to takes notes according to the method of Cornell when you have to derive the most crucial information out of a large and very informative material.

Bill Gates’ method

It is quite possible that Bill Gates has based his way of taking notes on the Cornell notes method, but his version of this method is modified.

How is the method used?

If you want to take notes in the way Bill Gates is doing it, you should divide a page into four equal parts. As you can imagine, each of the parts is dedicated to a particular topic. Actually, you can modify the types of information you are going to write down in each of the boxes according to the topic and the form of a meeting. For example, you can use one box for major thoughts, another one for all general notes and important details. One more box might be used for examples whereas another one can be used for questions.

When should you use such a way of taking notes?

Unlike Cornell notes, this method will be more suitable for classes and meeting without any strict plan or being held in the form of a free discussion. So, you might find such a method of taking notes useful if your professor tends to speak about different topics frequently changing subjects.