The Cornell notetaking system uses a college-ruled notebook with each page divided into thirds. These sections are for points that the lecturer makes, questions about these points, and a final summary of everything on the page.
Ideas are captured in the largest section of the page, each idea getting a couple of lines with ample space left between. The point here is to capture the gist of everything the lecturer is saying without getting bogged down writing details. The empty spaces are for summarizing or clarifying the key points after the lecture.
The left hand margin is for capturing any questions that come up as you work through the material from the lecture.
The bottom of the page is for summarizing everything on the page.
SOURCE Cornell University The Cornell Note Taking System and WikiHow
The iterative process has a lot in common with TK Progressive Summarization, how to improve your notes 202002102103
While the Cornell system seems highly effective for lecture settings where you mainly need the notes to study for exams, they may not have an extended lifecycle such as more atomic note taking systems such as Evergreen notes are note that are alive
