Whether you’re a student or a tutor, understanding different learning styles and figuring out what works best for you or your student is the key to unlocking success when studying and during exam season. When you study for your learning style, your understanding of the content will improve as well as your ability to retain it - what’s not to like about that? There are four main types of learning styles - visual, auditory, kinaesthetic, and read/write - and we have study tips for each one!

1. Visual Learners (Seeing)

Visual learners learn best through pictures, diagrams, charts, and videos. They like to see what they are learning.

Study Tips:

• Highlight key points in different colours.
• Use mindmaps, flow charts etc. to organise information.
• Use educational photos and videos.
• Look at people and teachers when they speak to remain focused.
• Make flashcards with images when revising.

2. Auditory Learners (Listening)

Auditory learners learn best by listening and communicating. A spoken explanation will be more useful for an auditory learner than charts and images.

Study Tips:

• Read content out loud when studying.
• Record yourself explaining content and listen back to it.
• Study in a group setting with lots of discussion.
• Listen to audiobooks and educational podcasts.
• Participate in classes and contribute to discussions.

3. Kinaesthetic Learners (Hands-On)

Kinaesthetic learners need to actively engage with the material they are learning (moving about and touching).

Study Tips:

• Write notes while reading.
• Use a physical object like a stress ball while studying.
• Take regular active breaks.
• Get physical while studying - review notes on a walk or have a friend quiz you while you throw a ball for example.
• Try experiments and role-playing.

4. Read/Write Learners

Read/Write learners are exactly what you think they are! They learn best from reading information and writing notes.

Study Tips:

• Rewrite information in your own words.
• Highlight & annotate.
• Study from textbooks, articles etc.
• Reread notes silently.

While there are four main types of learners, we don’t all fit neatly into these boxes and a lot of people will benefit from a mixture of learning techniques. The best thing to do is experiment with these and see what works well for you!