Comments on: Flashbacks to Hell Week

By: Wacky Mommy

Wacky Mommy — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 17:17:10 +0000

Heather, thank you!! I have always been described as a “visual” learner because I write compulsively during lectures — then usually don’t look at the notes again. haha. But it sounds like i’m actually kinesthetic. thanks for the site, i bookmarked it.

ps zoot, i am so glad u two got to run away. v. romantic

By: chantale

chantale — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 12:42:24 +0000

I haven’t written an exam in a couple years. I am in university, but I have to write essays rather than exams. I don’t know which I prefer more.

For exams, I just read it over once. Often, it was the first time I read the information. I am a huge procrastinator, so I generally don’t read the readings until exam time. In the classes I have now, I often don’t read the readings at all. Terrible. I’m going to make some huge changes to my routine next semester…

By: Heather

Heather — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 02:14:50 +0000

Ahhhh! It may be the nerdy teacher in me, but I love anything to do with figuring out learning styles of my students. LilZ is an Auditory learner, which means he learns best listening rather than “seeing” or “doing”. If he has lectures, he should try to record them if his teachers allow it. If he has to read a chapter, he should play music or have background noise in order to retain it better. Reading out loud works well, too, as he knows. I, too, am 77% Auditory, so I know what it’s like to be LilZ.

You are a kinesthetic and probably partially visual learner. You have to “do” something (such as writing) to learn best. You probably liked hands on projects the best when you were in school and unfortunately, exams usually don’t mesh well with kinesthetic learners (they do much better with presentations or labs).

Sounds like MrZ is a visual learner if he has a photographic memory. They have to see something to learn it (either through pictures or readings).

If you want to get in even deeper, we could talk about the Multiple Intelligences theory. That breaks the learning styles into even more parts (7 categories). I’m a Musical/Logical person.

Here is a good site with more about learning styles and multiple intelligences with great tips on how to best study for your style:

http://www.ldpride.net/learningstyles.MI.htm

By: Shawna

Shawna — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 01:15:52 +0000

I was a terrible note-taker, so a lot of my exams involved highlighting copies of other people’s notes. I guess that put me somewhere in between you and MrZ – I didn’t re-write, but I couldn’t just read without the highlighter or I wouldn’t really pay attention.

Unless we’re talking math, in which case I actually had to do practice problems.

By: Jen

Jen — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 19:34:30 +0000

That picture makes me happy.

By: Karl

Karl — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 14:15:36 +0000

I was another of the lucky ones. If there had been a major in test taking, I would have chosen it. I think the only test I studied for was the AP US History test. The bad news is that test taking doesn’t really translate well to adult life.

By: Jana

Jana — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 02:19:15 +0000

I’m lucky–like MrZ. My husband, though, has returned to college after almost 20 years, and he has found–like you–that writing and rewriting his notes does the trick.

By: Alison C

Alison C — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 21:38:54 +0000

Even now if I need to remember anything I need to write it down. A note on my iPhone can help but actually using pen and paper is so much better.

If I write a shopping list I don’t even need to bring it with me to remember what’s on it.

By: Kelly

Kelly — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 20:58:26 +0000

Notecards/flashcards. The re-writing, then being able to pull out the ones I knew to make the amount of material more reasonable, and focus on what I didn’t know was helpful.

By: Jess

Jess — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 20:14:36 +0000

I was that person. The person who glanced at the notes and chapters half an hour before the exam and then got a 97%. As long as I had been in class, I could recall almost everything I needed to. And I BS’d really well.

Granted, I retained nothing. So when I graduated college and started teaching, I stood in front of a class of 5th graders and was all “OMG I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I’M DOING”.

My poor husband studied for three days straight for a ten question quiz, and then only managed a B on a good day. We were married our last year of college and because of our opposite learning methods I earned many, many nasty looks and pure hatred.

*sigh* I was so good at school. Probably the last time I was easily successful at anything.