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Written by: Nour Abdulkhalek
A crucial part of knowing how to study is knowing what kind of learner you are and what learning styles work for you! This blog will highlight 3 main learning styles which are based on the VAK learning styles model! Remember, you may be more than one kind of learner! If you would like to figure out which type of learner you are, click here to take a quiz!
If you are a visual learner, you need to see it to learn it! This learning style heavily values and concentrates on gaining knowledge through the practices of observing, seeing, and reading. To fulfill this, visual learners often create appealing visuals (ex. Flowcharts, pictures, videos, etc); this is great but there are many more strategies to improve your study experiences!
By sitting at the front of your class or lecture hall, you are able to listen to your lectures with all your attention to ensure you don’t miss a word!
Make your information come to life by observing it from different angles/perspectives! Try seeing concepts in action by relating it to real-life examples and creating a visual demonstration.
Have your notes ready beforehand and bring them to class. Whether you hand-write or print out your notes, bringing them to class and having them ready allows you to focus all your attention on processing the concepts that are presented to you as you will not be busy taking these notes on the spot.
Make your own cue cards or flash notes and customize them by adding symbols and pictures in them to make them more memorable!
If you are an auditory learner, you can easily follow verbal instructions and directions. For this reason, many auditory learners easily retain information from lectures because listening and communicating are two of their strengths. here are some tips to use in order to maintain healthy study habits for this type of learning:
Like visual learners, auditory learners greatly benefit from sitting at the front of the lecture hall or class as they will truly catch every word said during the lecture!
Find friends that will help you study! Create study groups or finding a study buddy will help you a lot with memorizing, retaining, understanding, and relaying the content. With these people, recite the information in the format of a conversation or verbally quizzing each other.
Most students love to listen to music while studying but many are concerned as to whether the music is distracting or not. Luckily for auditory learners, music is encouraged as long as there are no lyrics. Lyric-free music allows students to maintain a constant flow. This genre of music prevents auditory learners from getting the information and lyrics mixed up when studying.
In post-secondary, it is very common to record lectures and is encouraged as long as you have your professor’s permission! Usually, listening to things several times allows us to memorize and understand them more thoroughly so it is a great opportunity to keep you busy on the bus, when shopping, etc.
Kinesthetic learners, also known as tactile learners, require physical touch and active participation to gain their knowledge. In other words, the hands-on method is the most efficient way of learning for them.
Through the use of coloured sticky notes, highlighters, pens, and pencils, Kinesthetic learners can process the information in a clearer way depending on which stationary they are using. For example, pencils can be used specifically to draw out flow charts, a specific highlighter colour to underline vocabulary, another colour to highlight important concepts, sticky notes to mark the most important concepts, etc.
Regular exercise is healthy for everyone but incorporating some movements and some exercise into the Kinesthetic learners’ study sessions will increase their productivity. You can do exercises between chapters as not only will this keep you focussed but it will also act as an incentive and motivate you! Get creative with it!
Sitting at a desk for a long period of time is definitely not for everyone! In general, standing up is much better for your health than sitting down is. For Kinesthetic learners though, it is even more effective in retaining information as it incorporates some body movement and connectivity!
Learning what type of learner you are taking a long time, sometimes even months! But remember, when you figure it out and find strategies that work well for you, you will be so relieved!
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