Sponsored by Guidance Helicopters, Inc.
by Blake Herzog
It’s important for students of all ages to understand how their brain tends to process information for later use, whether you’re in the classroom or anywhere else. It’s something you already may have noticed in the course of your daily life, by taking a quiz or being evaluated for it.
If not, it often takes just a few minutes of reflecting on what’s worked best for you in the past and leveraging that well into your future.
Visual learners like to learn and communicate through images, color, maps, graphics and charts. When in class or studying, they should try drawing pictures and diagrams to aid in understanding concepts and how they relate to each other. Creating a system for color-coding their notes and watching and making videos related to the subject is also effective.
Auditory learners lean on their sense of hearing to collect and communicate knowledge. Recording lectures, reading printed material out loud and taking voice notes they can play back are some of their preferred study aids. They also thrive in study groups where they can discuss lessons with their peers and by talking through answers before writing them down.
Kinesthetic learners appreciate hands-on activities like working in labs, making models and doing practice run-throughs whenever they can, including with exams. They benefit from moving and taking short breaks while they study and love instructors who use real-world examples in their lectures and take the learning process into other environments.
Reading/writing learners enjoy reading assignments, PowerPoint presentations and writing essays. Sometimes classified as a subtype of a broader “visual learning” group, they write down as much as they can during any learning experience. They are often the ones who excel within “traditional” learning environments found on most school campuses emphasizing word-heavy research in books or online.
Most people use more than one style while they study, though kinesthetic learners are the most likely to strongly prefer their one method. Don’t be afraid to switch things up to find out what works for you in different situations.
