When you’ve been around the academic long enough, you start to notice a certain kind of person. This person never studies, barely does their readings, and still manages to get good grades on everything, apparently effortlessly. What are they doing that you’re not doing? How can they get away with so little studying, when you have to work hard just to get a decent grade?
The answer isn’t that they’re secretly a cyborg. Instead, maybe you should take inventory of the way that you’re studying. Most people don’t realize that there are actually several very different ways in which people learn, and if you aren’t matching your study style to the way that you learn, then it’s going to take you a lot longer, you’ll be less likely to remember the information later, and you’re likely to get very frustrated in the meantime.
It’s pretty easy to figure out which learning style you are; take a look at the options and how to figure it out.
Visual-Spacial Learners
Visual learners are people who have to see the material laid out in front of them in order to understand it. Just the act of looking at a word on a page helps a visual learner remember it, while seeing a concept diagrammed will make it much easier to comprehend. If you have a visual learning style, you should make as much use as you can of maps, charts, filmstrips, flashcards, notes, brain maps, flow charts, or any other pen-on-paper medium you come across. If you don’t have any paper on hand but need to remember something, try closing your eyes and visualizing exactly how you would write it in your head. If you can come up with an image for it, that’s even better. Anything that allows you to “see” what the concept looks like will help you remember it.
Additionally, visual learners remember things best when they’ve figure it out on their own. Try working through a problem on your own a few times before asking for help, because if you can get it yourself, you’ll be more likely to remember the solution later.
Some visual learners are extra lucky, and have what’s called a “photographic memory.” This means that everything they look at gets frozen in their mind’s eye, so they can recall it exactly later. Entire books can be memorized at a glance this way. If you don’t have a photographic memory, though, don’t worry about it—not many people do.
Auditory Learners
Auditory learners do best when they can hear the material that they’re suppose to learn. This means that most lectures are particularly well-suited to auditory learners, because most of the material is presented out loud like a regular conversation. Taping lectures or listening to podcasts of the lecture afterward can be particularly helpful to auditory learners. However, they should still take lots of notes, because later they will be necessary for studying. For maximum impact, read the notes aloud to yourself, emphasizing key concepts and terms. Re-organize the notes and read them again in a different order, so the ideas don’t become dependent on context. Record yourself reading the notes, and listen to it a few times through so that you can pay attention while you’re doing it.
For some people, it’s a lot easier to remember things that have some sort of beat or music to go along with them. That’s why they remember the lyrics to songs so effortlessly. For these people, it might be a good idea to set the notes against a rhythm or tune—something regular, or even catchy—making it easier to memorize. If you aren’t particularly musical, try writing a parody to a song you already know.
Kinesthetic/Tactile Learners
This category of learning is one of the hardest to incorporate into school work. Kinesthetic learners have to be moving while they are acquiring new knowledge, and if the activity itself involves movement, even better. People with this style of learning tend to pick up skills like knitting, shooting a basketball or drawing quickly, because the motion is easy for them to remember and replicate. It’s pretty easy to tell who kinesthetic learners are when you’re looking around a classroom; they’re the ones who are always moving—bouncing a foot, chewing gum, tapping a pencil on their notebook while the professor is talking. These are the sorts of things you should do (if you don’t do them already) if you’re a kinesthetic learner. The motion will occupy the part of your mind that tends to wander, allowing you to focus on the information presented. Taking notes is a must for kinesthetic learners, as the motion of writing the words down will make them easier to remember. When studying later, you should re-write your notes, multiple times, in order to make sure that the words stick. You should also be tracing the words on the page while you read, making study sheets, and always seeking out a way to stay active while you’re studying. Be sure to take breaks to do something physical, like jumping jacks, juggling or sit-ups. The motion will help you remember what you were just learning about.
There’s a fine line between being a kinesthetic learner and having ADHD. Make sure you can tell the difference.
Mixed Styles
It’s not uncommon for someone to have more than one learning style. In fact, it’s far more common to have some elements of all of the learning styles, but one that stands out more than the others. For example, a primarily auditory learner might still bounce her feet in class or like to chart out material to fully understand it. Knowing which style you are doesn’t mean you can only use those techniques; it just means you should focus on them.
What Style are You?
There are a number of resources available online to help you figure out what learning style you are, if you haven’t already figured it out from the descriptions. Here are a couple online quizzes to help you out:
There are also some more complex schools of thought about learning styles, which go beyond just visual, auditory and kinetic. To learn more, check out The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and Left vs. Right.
