Now that you know your learning style, the next step is to use it. If you didn’t take the learning style test in part one, here it is again.

Auditory and read/write learners have it easiest in western education settings, which often involve listening, talking, writing and reading text books. With any luck your teachers, lecturers and tutors will add in activities for visual and kinaesthetic learners as well. But what is most important is what you do for your own study time: basically, the trick is to do activities which suit you best. Here are some ideas:

Visual: draw study notes that use pictures, diagrams, mind maps , flow charts instead of a list of steps, colours (highlight your notes, use different coloured pens and pencils), shapes, use whiteboards to draw pictures or mind-maps, draw diagrams or pictures, or colour-coded answers to answer possible questions.

Auditory: discussion groups, listen to lectures, download podcasts on the topic or create your own, make up ryhmes, poems or songs to memorise a list (and repeat them aloud), explain the concept or recite a list to the dog (they’re great listeners), answer possible questions aloud.

Read/Write: write study notes, read them and re-write them, write words that describe diagrams or pictures, use whiteboards to write lists and notes, write out answers to possible questions.

Kinaesthetic: physically do something – at all costs, don’t just read the textbook and your notes! Doing anything helps – use whiteboards to write or draw answers to possible questions, write study notes, type them on the computer. If you’re doing an applied subject, actually do the skills taught – so to learn Project Management, actually choose a really small project (like fixing the toaster) and do the techniques taught – create a Brief, do a plan, identify risks and monitor your progress against the plan.

There’s lots of ideas on the web for different learning styles: for example see here and here and here, or google “learning style”.

I’ve discussed the basic VARK styles, but there’s other classifications of learning styles – you can find out more about them in the articles above if you’re interested.

In the next few posts I’ll talk about some study methods that can benefit everyone, then move on to some tricks for when you’re actually sitting the test.

The single best thing you can do to study easier is to learn using your own preferred learning style.

Are you visual? Do you learn best from pictures, color and shape?

Maybe you’re auditory – you learn best by listening?

How about read/writing – from looking at words, and/or writing them?

Or kinaesthetic – you learn best by doing something always?

When learning to do something physical, like use a hammer or a computer, doing it is the best way. But when given a choice, would you prefer to dive in and do it, or maybe talk about it, read about it or look around first?

Have a think about the things you choose to do in your spare time – do they involve looking at things or creating images; listening to people or music; reading or writing; or doing things? You may have two or more preferred styles, or you may have a significant preference for one style.

Your preferred style doesn’t mean you can’t learn in the other ways – just that you’ll learn easiest and best in your preferred way. I’m highly auditory, so I learn best by going to classes and from discussions. Skipping class is therefore a really bad idea for me. I remember something I’ve heard much better than something I’ve just read (although I have a secondary preference for reading and writing). I certainly remember words better than images, because I’m not at all visual.

On the other hand, my husband is visual and kinaesthetic. Because learning styles have a wider impact than just in study, this creates interesting problems for us!

Take this learning styles test to find your own learning style, then browse the information on the website to find out more about how you learn best, and how to do that when studying for a test.

In the next few posts we’ll get in to what you can actually do to study easier, not harder.