Do you know what type of learner you are?

Your Study skills will either make or break your performance at a top college. It is important that you are properly prepared. Unlike high school, your instructors at the best colleges will treat you as an adult. While they are generally quite candid about when and how much your test and study activities will account for your grades, they do not have study preparation materials or give you little hand –outs that say “ok, here is what we learned and this is what I plan to test you on”. You will need to learn how to study to retain significant amounts of material.

Your Study skills will either make or break your performance at a top college. It is important that you are properly prepared. Unlike high school, your instructors at the best colleges will treat you as an adult. While they are generally quite candid about when and how much your test and study activities will account for your grades, they do not have study preparation materials or give you little hand –outs that say “ok, here is what we learned and this is what I plan to test you on”. You will need to learn how to study to retain significant amounts of material.

In order to study effectively, you will need to know that everyone learns in a different way, yet fits into one of three categories of learning. Some students, labeled visual learners do best with reading materials and actually seeing the material about which they are learning. Some students are completely auditory they must hear each thing that they are to learn. The third category of learner is tactile he must touch or feel something in order to learn about it. Most people will fit into one or more categories. Think about how you like to learn, the tasks that are easiest for you, and you will find that one of the categories above describes your learning patterns.

Along with each style of learning, intelligence skills play a role in what and how much you will retain. Each skill set has its own ideal strategy for studying. The six types of intelligence have been paired with their complimentary study strategy below. Observe which category best fits your style and practice those study habits.

Visual / Spatial Intelligence: Ideal study situations include reading, writing, painting, drawing, heavy use of charts, building blocks and practical objects.

Verbal/Linguistic Intelligence: Ideal study situations include reading, speaking, teaching (helping others to learn), and heavily using language construction to assist in remembering an idea.

Logical / Mathematical Intelligence: Ideal study situations include developing categories of information, using knowledge for problem solving, creating lineal relationships, calculating progression of reasoning and working within geometric shapes.

Bodily / Kinesthetic Intelligence: Ideal Study situations include muscular movement, body language, physical activity, working with hand/eye coordination.

Musical / Rhythmic Intelligence: ideal Study situations include working with sound and learn through patterns of tone, composition and structure of the sound.

Interpersonal Intelligence: Ideal Study situations include cooperating or helping others to understand an idea, co-op/ group study, and communicative methods of exchange. Intrapersonal Intelligence: Ideal Study situations include self study, evaluating ideas as they relate to the individual, reflective or introspective ideas and concepts. Once you have determined which group of characteristics are most like you in terms of style and intelligence, then you can optimize your study habits to work for you. Knowing your learning style may also offer some ideas of what will become the best college courses or field for you to study. Further, taking a daily learning approach reviewing the material on a daily basis is far less daunting then cramming the night before an exam. Taking tests will be easier for you as you become aware of which type of material you will need to prepare and how best to absorb it based on your personal learning intelligence.

Posted on July 8, 2006 at 12:07 PM

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