What’s Your Learning Style?

Every single person has a unique learning style that falls into one of the main four types.

For years, there was a universal belief that you could teach people the same way, and that they would all pick up the important information regardless of their individual differences. Classrooms and teaching methods were focused on turning students into a unified group, completely ignoring their particular requirements and looking for ways to infuse knowledge without taking the time to think of why some of those students were simply falling off the charts or missing the data entirely. Then came a not-so-shocking revelation: people have different learning styles.

After that information was completely verified, teaching methods started to change. While one teacher or professor cannot actually give a group lessons in a completely personalized manner, it became clear that the students were different individuals, and that the lessons needed to look for ways to reach out to all of them, incorporating different techniques to impulse and get their attention. This teaching -and studying- method is named “VARK”, as an acronym for visual, auditory, reading/writing, and kinesthetic.

The comprehension of its different components is vital for you as a student for the following reason: knowing what method works best for you is the difference between easier picking of important information and simply overworking to get mediocre results. Let me explain it better: when you are using a method that’s completely opposite to what you works most effectively with you, the investment of time and effort will be double, without giving you the results you want. This, however, does not mean that we use only one of the four elements of VARK in our learning process, it’s simply that you are using one or two in a more prominent way. Check what are the main characteristics of each of them to know which of them is the more effective for you.

Visual

Imagery is key for visual learners. They can get all the information they need from diagrams, graphs and most likely are people that draw. Ideally, this type of learner will get the most out of the information that comes from something colorful, and will surely react positively to things explained in that manner.

How to study if you are visual?

• Do graphs or diagrams as notes.
• Make drawings exemplifying your information.
• Use color resources (post-its, markers, etc) to highlight content
• Use bond paper to do lesson diagrams.

Auditive

This one is one of the hardest ones to pick up and differentiate. This is the kind of learner that will surely remember a phrase a professor or friend told them about a subject and will surely be able to remember them almost to a T.

How to study if you are auditive?

• Repeat your lessons out loud.
• Participate in group discussions.
• Talk or explain the subject to a friend or classmate.
• Record the lesson and hear it later.

Reading/writing

This is the type of student that will surely enjoy some alone time, just them and their notes. They make sure to use the normal tools of learning, and they are friends of books and study guides. The reading/writing type will be incredibly able to remember and interpret book pages into snippets with the whole information resumed.

How to study if you are reading/writing?

• Create statements with resumed content.
• Jot down important ideas.
• Take notes and pass them clean to another place.
• Resume book pages into charts and diagrams.

Kinesthetic

This is maybe one of the hardest types to spot and address in the learning process. Kinesthetic people need to have tactical representation of their ideas, and will often be restless during the lessons. They need to get ideas in a graphic and active way.

How to study if you are kinesthetic?

• Stand and do an explanation of a subject to yourself or others.
• Do a technical representation of your lesson.
• Use drawings to illustrate your points and ideas.
• If possible, create simple projects that represent your lessons.  

At Marconi International University, we impulse our student body to learn how to make the most out of their individual characteristics to impulse them in their career. That’s one of the reasons why we want you to know which of the VARK elements works better for you, and to use that in your day to day, to get the right  method to study and learn for your future! Remember that you can share your views on this subject on our social media platforms, or here in the comments!

Make sure to know how you learn better, so you can use the right techniques for you. 

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