Before starting the 1st semester of my undergrad, I joined Telkom University's Career Development Center workshop about "Studying in College." I can see that the workshop was so good and effective (at least proven by my own experience) because I realized that we have different learning styles. Some people are Visual Learners, Auditory Learners, Kinesthetic Learners, and even Read & Write Learners. So, I want to share this knowledge with you, and then you can find out your learning style and use the study tips from your learning style.
I think this blog post is the most crucial part of the College Series. Because, if you didn't find your learning style, I would say that it would be harder for you to study during college.
Before we start, I encourage you to prepare a paper and a pen. So, we can find out your learning style while reading this blog post or watching the video version:
Let's get started!
Step 1: Create The First Table - "LEARNING IS"
First, I want you to create a table that looks like this:
After that, fill the columns with as many bullet points as possible based on your own experience. There's no right or wrong answer as long as it's your situation. If you're not sure what to write or still confuse, I'll give you the example of my situation back then:
Step 2: Create The Second Table - "SUPPORTERS & BARRIERS OF COMMUNICATION WITH LECTURERS"
Second, I want you to create another table about the relationship between you (as a student) with your professor. The table looks like this:
And this is an example of my situation:
After you have written down all of the bullet points on those two tables above, I'm going to give you the studying tips & strategies:
Find Your Own Learning Resources. It would be best if you were independent since you can't rely on your friends to study the materials. I guess you can't just wait until the lecturer give you the material if you want to understand the material.
Learning Resources are Not Only From The Lecturers. You can go to the library, read some books, and enroll in online courses (e.g., Coursera, Udacity, Udemy, edX, Kadenze, etc.). I realize that if you only rely on the lecturer's explanation or material, it would be hard to understand the lesson. For example, in my case, when I took the Machine Learning class, honestly, my lecturer explained the materials very well, and I love his explanation approach. However, it's pretty hard for me to understand something with "One Time" learning, so I need to repeat the material. At some part, I need to learn from different resources to be able to understand the material. So, back in the day, I also enrolled in Andrew Ng's Machine Learning online class on Coursera. And I realized that I could understand the material very well from that class too. Long story short, I did get some benefits in having two different sources to learn about Machine Learning.
If There's a Task/Assignment, Find a Way to Achieve Your Goals By Yourself. It doesn't mean that you can't do a study group or something like that. But, you have to keep in mind that you need to understand the material while you're doing the assignments. So, don't do the assignments just because you need to finish them. Instead, you can treat your assignments as the opportunity for you to learn again with the materials.
If You Want to Learn Quickly, Use Your Imagination While Studying/Doing The Assignments. For example, when I see algorithms or codes, it's pretty hard for me to understand if I didn't imagine the concept or the flow. It would be best if you used your Imagination in all situations to help you learn faster.
Step 3: Choose The Learning Style Based on Yourself (Self-Awareness)
This step is three the most important steps of all. In this step, you don't have to write it down because I want you to read carefully, do the self-awareness, and choose which one is your learning style(s)?
#1 VISUAL LEARNER (aka. Seeing = Learning)
Usually, suppose you love to see some pictures, read some books, watch movies. In that case, there is a probability that you are a visual learner because you can absorb the information quickly by seeing it. So, it would be easier for you to understand the materials when your lecturers show some presentation slides or demonstrations during class.
If you feel that way, you are a visual learner. But, if you're still not sure, I'm going to give you some of the Visual Learner Characteristics:
Love READING Books or Presentation Slides
Love SEEING Pictures, Infographics, & Demonstrations
Love WATCHING Movies or Videos
Love COLORFUL Things and STORYTELLING
Need CALMNESS While Studying
Comfortable Sitting IN FRONT OF the Class (Passively)
#2 AUDITORY LEARNER (aka. Listening = Learning)
Usually, they will get/understand quickly and easily if they hear the information. So, in the classroom situation, auditory learners will get bored if the lecturers/professors only required them to read the textbooks or the slides. As we know, auditory learners need to listen to the information from the lecturer's mouth orally.
If you feel that way, you are an auditory learner. But, if you're still not sure, I'm going to give you some of the Auditory Learner Characteristics:
Love LISTENING to MUSIC
Love DISCUSSIONS and LISTENING STORIES/TALKS
Prefer to be EXPLAINED by OTHERS rather than reading the books
A GOOD LISTENER
Read SLOWLY
Love REPEATING words WITH your MOUTH
Can HOLD UP TO 30 Minutes Listening to Others
#3 KINESTHETIC LEARNER (aka. Doing = Learning)
You know, if you are an engineer or you love gaming, I guess you have the kinesthetic learning style. Why? Because it's easier for you to understand or learn something that you DID. But, it's pretty hard for you to understand something that you read or hear. That's why I wrote Doing = Learning for the Kinesthetic Learner.
Suppose you can imagine a kinesthetic learner is learning in the classroom. Usually, this kind of student can't stay still/silent during class (aka. they need to move their body while listening to the lecturer's explanation).
If you feel that way, you are a kinesthetic learner. But, if you're still not sure, I'm going to give you some of the Kinesthetic Learner Characteristics:
Love PRACTICAL classes rather than theoretical
CAN'T STAY STILL/QUIET during class
#4 READ & WRITE LEARNER
In my opinion, this learning style is a combination between visual learners and kinesthetic learners. And these are the Read & Write Learner Characteristics:
Love READING Books or Other Resources
Will WRITE Any Information Down as Sentences
Can READ QUICKLY
Love Writing Some DETAILS
Easily DISTURBED by the NOISES/CROWDS
Can ABSORB Lots of Informations from READINGS
Step 4: Learn the Study Tips for Each Learning Style
Only knowing your learning style is NOT ENOUGH. So, I'm going to give the study tips for each learning style.
Visual Learner Study Tips:
Make Notes with COLORFUL PENS/PENCILS
Create/Draw CHARTS, GRAPHS, or DIAGRAMS
Use INITIALS or SYMBOLS More on the Notebooks
RE-DRAW Your Pages from MEMORY
Auditory Learner Study Tips:
Make Notes with RECORDINGS
Create DISCUSSIONS to Practice More
After You Heard Some Information, WRITE THEM DOWN
READ Your Notes ALOUD
EXPLAIN Your Notes to Your FRIENDS
Kinesthetic Learner Study Tips:
Often PLAY GAMES
DO Some EXPERIMENTS/PROJECTS
DRAW Pictures or Illustrations of YOUR IDEAS
Read & Write Learner Study Tips:
WRITE WHATEVER You Want to Write
RE-READ Your Notes
ORGANIZE Diagrams, Charts, & Graphics
Important Note: Anyway, if you have several learning styles, honestly, that is great! Because you can be flexible in terms of studying. But, if you only have one learning style, that's good either. Just do the best with your learning style first, and then probably next time, you can develop and practice more for having the other learning styles.
How to Develop Your Other Learning Styles?
If you want to have all of these four learning styles, I recommend you to do this consistently until it becomes a habit:
You have to READ the materials
And then WRITE IT DOWN on your notebooks
After that, GO TO CLASS & LISTEN to the lectures
Then, you GOOGLE MORE INFORMATION
KEEP PRACTICING
And repeat from number one.
I hope that this cycle will help you to get the habit of learning very well, quickly, and efficiently.
If you're still unsure about your learning style, you can try this self-assessment test on https://bit.ly/FindYourLearningStyle.
That's all for today! Thank you so much for reading this blog post or watching the video until the end. Stay safe and healthy!