What's your learning style?

[InfiniteBakuphoon]

Everyone learns differently. Some people may work best with sight and graphics, while others may prefer working with sound and spoken words. Some people work faster than others, while others may work a little slower. And some people may prefer to "do" and actively experiment as a way to learn. Based on your experiences at school, or work, or anywhere else where learning is important, what do you think your learning style is like? Is it one of the above, a little bit of everything in certain situations, or something completely different?

I myself am definitely a visual learner. Using visual/graphical aids and taking notes are absolutely essential for me, although sometimes the very act of writing notes itself can distract me from actually absorbing the material, which can be frustrating. I'm also someone who learns best by example, or specifically through trial-and-error. That is to say, I'm someone who prefers to read about something or watch someone do something, and then try it myself over and over until I get it right. I like this method of learning because it allows me to make mistakes and actually learn more about the "why" and "how" as opposed to "here's how you do it, now do it" (or alternatively: "if you can't do this right the first time, you're an idiot", which is never a good way to learn). I'd also consider myself a pretty fast learner given the opportunity to utilize the right learning style, which is nice.

 

[dragon_nataku]

I am also a very visual learner. Show me how to do a thing once, watch me do the thing once, and I'm probably good to go on my own from there on out. I am NOT good at people talking at me about how to do the thing if they're not also either showing me or talking at me while I try to do the thing. Reading how to do the thing can give me some idea of how to do it (like reading how to do an experiment in a lab manual before getting to lab) but until I get my hands on the actual experiment it's not that useful.

As for studying, repetition works best for me. For languages I use flashcards and just go over them repeatedly. For other classes I type up my class notes and then just read them over and over again, usually a few hours before the exam. I like to say my brain is like a computer with a small hard drive but massive amounts of RAM (so, not so good long-term memory, really good short-term memory) so I stuff my brain with all that info right before the exam and then immediately forget most of it once the exam is over. ^<__<^;;

 

[ocelotlrama jaguar]

I am very much a visual learner. I do better reading books and looking at visuals than through auditory learning. If I am doing things through auditory, I have to hear something over and over to get, especially on stuff I'm barely learning and unfamiliar with.

I had one class in college that was completely auditory and we had to take the notes ourselves. My professor never cared to repeat what he said and was very critical of mistakes made, deriding us as if we were his own kids that needed to be embarrassed to get the point. He was merciless on that and I couldn't stand the man (but that's beside the point). Unless we had a disability, none of us were able to bring a tape recorder to even record his lectures. I got a few A's thanks to the notes taken, but a couple of C's brought that down because I took notes on stuff that didn't matter and missed what was crucial, so I barely got a B in that class. One of the few B's I've gotten in college. Still, I was lucky. Our mid-term and end-of-term grades would be posted on the wall outside the classroom and I saw a lot of F's (probably bad at note taking and weren't auditory learners; or they could just be completely lazy, I don't know). The few A's were probably good auditory learners and/or took excellent notes.

That's how I learn. Probably the only time I learned that with my professor being such a hardass on auditory learning.

 

[Lyrebird]

Through awesomeness plus I learn through visual and theory. I like to learn as much as I can to prove that I can destroy people. Plus I'm amazing. All hail the Goddess Lyrebird.

Seriously I learn through theory and experiences

 

[InfiniteBakuphoon]

I like to say my brain is like a computer with a small hard drive but massive amounts of RAM (so, not so good long-term memory, really good short-term memory) so I stuff my brain with all that info right before the exam and then immediately forget most of it once the exam is over. ^<__<^;;

I'm kind of the opposite of that: I have pretty good long-term memory and not-so-great short-term memory. That is to say, if I don't make an active effort to remember something immediately, it's very unlikely that I'll be able to even slightly remember it later. It's not really a serious problem for me, though; it just means that I can't be lazy about taking notes, writing down an important date in a calendar, or making a connection in my head to remember something as soon as I receive it (and it also means that cramming right before a test doesn't work as well for me as it does for you... it helps, but only a little bit). That said, when I do find a way to remember something, I usually never forget it. And now that I think about it, most of that applies to auditory information more so than visual information... my short-term memory is much better with the latter (if still slightly iffy at times) because, again, I'm a very visual learner.

I had one class in college that was completely auditory and we had to take the notes ourselves. My professor never cared to repeat what he said and was very critical of mistakes made, deriding us as if we were his own kids that needed to be embarrassed to get the point. He was merciless on that and I couldn't stand the man (but that's beside the point). Unless we had a disability, none of us were able to bring a tape recorder to even record his lectures. I got a few A's thanks to the notes taken, but a couple of C's brought that down because I took notes on stuff that didn't matter and missed what was crucial, so I barely got a B in that class. One of the few B's I've gotten in college. Still, I was lucky. Our mid-term and end-of-term grades would be posted on the wall outside the classroom and I saw a lot of F's (probably bad at note taking and weren't auditory learners; or they could just be completely lazy, I don't know). The few A's were probably good auditory learners and/or took excellent notes.

That class sounds like it was a real fight for survival... one where the professor couldn't care less about actually teaching vs. just lecturing. As for a tape recorder, I think I personally would've taken one anyway, snuck it in a backpack or a random pocket somewhere, and then have it run for the whole class without anyone noticing. I can't imagine that it would have been a problem if the audio was never actually published or shared with anyone, but then again, I don't know how possible it really would've been to get away with something like that in your class, or how severe the punishments for breaking rules were (especially with a professor like that). In any case, though, I'm glad to hear that you were able to get out of that class in one piece (even with the sting of getting a B).

 

[dragon_nataku]

Some weird things get stuck in my longterm memory though, for reasons I will never understand. In 9th grade Spanish class we had to learn all of the prepositions for one exam. 9th grade for me was like 1997-1998. To this day I still remember all of them, in alphabetical order, and I only ever used them for that one class' one exam. I wish I knew why this happened so I could use it for more useful things (I don't even know what a "preposition" is in English either. I'm not good with "grammar words," like indefinite article and particles and whatever).

 

[Zexy]

Graphics, spreadsheets, everything visual pretty much. If I get too much talking I'll probably forget it while with any sort of graph it will stay around. One way to get motivated to study when I feel like procrastinating instead is making spreadsheets of my own where I collect the info I need to learn about and categorize them by myself. Making those seems interesting so I get motivated. I try to memorize that way too, coming up with strange acronyms that stand for key words/phrases.

 

[BorgyDudeMan]

I am an auditory learner. For some reason I remember things I hear better that what I see

 

[GhostLucario]

I'm a visual learner. I can only learn if I see things (I learned how to drive just by watching my mother do it).

I am not at all auditory which is frustrating because I want to learn foreign languages and that makes it hard

 

[Peekaboo Pikachu]

I learn best by "doing" rather than by watching, or reading or hearing (though visual guides and Youtube videos are infinitely more helpful than reading/hearing.)