Discovering Your Learning Style: Key to Effective Studying and Better Results (Full Transcript)

Speaker 1: Here's Jonathan studying for a test. And studying, and studying, and studying. And here he is getting his test results. All that studying, and he's still got an F. Why? The thing is, there's no one right way to study. Some methods might work great for one person, and not at all for others. Everybody learns differently. In order to find a study method that's best for you, it's important to know your learning style. The four most popular learning styles are visual, auditory, reading-writing, and kinesthetic, or hands-on. For most people, one of these methods will work best, but it's also possible for a combination of different styles to be effective. To discover your learning style, you can complete an online assessment. There's a wide variety of them available, consisting of multiple-choice questions. However, you can also observe yourself and your previous learning experiences to get an idea of how you learn best. Let's circle back to Jonathan. When he's in class and his teacher is lecturing, he gets distracted pretty easily. Words tend to go in one ear and out the other. But when his teacher starts using visuals, Jonathan finds it easier to focus and understand the material. So he might be a visual learner. Now think about your history. How have you enjoyed learning in the past? Do you prefer watching over listening? Do you enjoy reading instead? Or maybe you learn best by doing, with hands-on experience. If none of these seem to grab you, give them each a try and see which one you tend to drift towards. Each learning style has its own study methods that work best with it. Let's take a look at how Jonathan and a few of his classmates study. As a visual learner, Jonathan finds it helpful to color-code his notes. He finds it helps him to organize information and internalize it better. He also creates diagrams while studying, finding that they help him to better understand certain structures and ideas. Jonathan watches videos, too, finding them helpful for extra information. Ruby is more of an auditory learner. She likes to study in a group and discuss the material with others. Sometimes she'll read her notes out loud because it helps her to hear what she's studying. In some classes, Ruby will record the lecture, with her teacher's permission, of course, so that she can go back and listen to it later. Terrell finds that he learns best by reading and writing. He takes substantial notes during class and reads over them often. When he's trying to memorize something, he'll often write it out. He also makes sure to read and re-read any materials his teacher has assigned the class. Raya is a kinesthetic learner. She's got a lot of energy and likes doing things. Labs and hands-on activities help her to understand certain ideas and topics. Sometimes she'll review her material while she's walking around. She also likes to take breaks in order to release some of her energy, allowing her to focus when she returns to studying. All four of these students are studying the same material, but they're doing so in different ways. Now this doesn't guarantee that they'll all get the same grades, but by determining their learning style and finding study methods that work for them, they just might find themselves getting better results.