There are four main types of learners: visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and reading/writing. Each learning style has different strategies to learn, understand, and retain information. No one is just one learning style, but we often lean towards one and not another. It is important to learn different strategies for studying for each learning style and implement these strategies in your own studying sessions. It is also important to note that not all strategies work for everyone. Find a few strategies that work best for you and stick with them. These will significantly improve your understanding of concepts within school and even after school. The point of this blog post is to give you a jumping off point to enhance your learning.
Visual Learning Style
Per the name, visual learners take in information visually. There are many different visuals that work for this learning style: maps, graphs, diagrams, charts, images, videos, etc. It is a common misconception that visual learners will always learn best from pictures, however this is false. Visual learners use different visual aids such as patterns and shapes to enhance their comprehension, not just pictures.
Studying Tips
It is best for visual learners to show relationships between different ideas visually through flow charts, diagrams, etc. Organize information presented in clear and organized ways such as taking color coded notes, using headings, and creating venn diagrams. Whatever works best for you! In order to retain information, it is useful to color code, create mind maps and your own diagrams, and create illustrations to explain concepts.
Auditory Learning Style
Auditory learners comprehend information auditorily: heard or spoken. They often sort through their ideas while speaking rather than sorting through their ideas nonverbally. They often speak out loud to understand concepts thrown their way. Auditory learners often learn best when information is presented to them through lectures, group discussions, study groups, and debates (to name a few).
Studying Tips
When looking to retain information, auditory learners should repeat information verbally, utilize technology for recording lectures and group activities, then listen to those recordings. They should also record themselves verbally explaining ideas the way that they understand the information and listen to those recordings. Another tool that can be used is listening to podcasts and audiobooks.
Kinesthetic Learning Style
If you learn best by doing, then you are a kinesthetic learner. Kinesthetic learners learn best from hands-on activities and physical movement. Some kinesthetic learners may struggle to sit still for long periods and would benefit from fidgets and breaks between learning information. It is important to bring kinesthetic learners into the activity through personal experiences and simulations.
Studying Tips
A kinesthetic learner should create hands-on activities during studying such as role-playing with a friend. Other ways to retain information is to connect the concepts to personal experiences and find real life examples of that concept. Also, try creating simulations of the concepts. Simulations are models that imitate the behavior of real-world processes or systems. Try to look for ways to model this behavior in the concepts you are learning.
Reading/Writing Learning Style
Reading/writing learners are also known as verbal-linguistic learners. They comprehend information when it is in word, such as writing exercises or reading exercises. Reading/writing learners are different from visual learners because they don’t learn best from patterns and other visual aids, but instead learn best from text. They often succeed when given text to read or take notes.
Studying Tips
Reading/writing learners should focus on writing everything down to retain information. It is best to describe charts and diagrams through writing, take notes, take written quizzes, and create outlines of concepts. It is very important to take good notes and then summarize the notes in your own words.
As I have gone through school, I have tried many different strategies to study and retain information. Knowing what type of learner I am and the best ways to study as that learning style has helped me significantly. I have continued to go into harder classes and I have found that writing information down over and over again helps me retain information. For math, I will rewrite an equation on every sheet of paper. It sometimes feels like a lot, but eventually, the equations began clicking and I no longer needed to write them down. I have rewritten notes and organized them in ways that made sense to me. I created headings and color coded certain information. I have learned, through my many years of school, the learning strategies that work for me. In doing so, I have been able to retain information and my classes have become so much easier. By finding the strategies that work best for you, you can have a similar experience. Concepts might click easier, and classes might seem less grueling. Taking the time to learn about yourself is so important, so take some time to trial and error different strategies. It will benefit you in the long run.
Skyline Learning Center 