Learning Styles

Learning Styles

I have always felt that I have a complex learning style, and I was right. My results for the learning styles quiz were that I am a multimodal learner. This means that I learn equally well in more than one way. I scored equally well in both reading/writing and kinesthetic, as well as scoring highly in aural. Looking back on how I have done with different teachers and subjects in the past, this makes a lot of sense to me.
Reading and writing has always come very naturally to me. I absorb books like a sponge. The information will stay with me for a long time, ready to be used when I need it. With writing, I’ve always found that if I write things down it helps me remember them later. To facilitate this learning style, I need to do a few things. First, it will be beneficial to me to transform things like graphs into words. I also need to try writing more lists, using more reference and textbooks, and taking detailed notes.
Having a kinesthetic learning style means that I learn well by doing things, which explains why I’m impatient to get my hands dirty, per se. I’ve noticed especially in physical classes, like dance, that I get bored while the instructor is explaining something before I get to try it. I learn dance much faster by doing the moves and repeating them until I get them right, rather than watching or listening to an explanation. For my academic classes, I need to find hands-on, realistic ways to remember and understand things, like looking at pictures or recalling situations visually.
I find it interesting that I scored high on these two particular learning styles, because in a way they contradict each other. For some subjects I need to turn pictures and graphs into words, and in other subjects it will help if I visually or physically remember things.
I also scored very high in aural learning. Throughout my learning career, I have enjoyed and benefited from interacting and studying with others or talking things over with the professor. In academic classes especially it always helped to have someone to do homework with, to bounce ideas off of or compare answers. Somehow hearing my ideas out loud and getting feedback has always improved my performance in class.
Now that I know the best ways for me to learn, I know how to succeed in all my classes. Having a multimodal learning style seems especially beneficial. This way, I can make almost any subject work to my advantage, because I have so many options in ways to learn.