here's Jonathan studying for a test and studying and studying and studying and here he is getting his test results all that studying and he still got an F why the thing is there's no one right way to study some methods might work great for one person and not at all for others everybody learns differently in order to find a study method that's best for you it's important to know your learning style the four most popular learning styles are visual auditory reading writing and kinesthetic or hands-on for most people one of these methods will work best but it's also possible for a combination of different styles to be effective to discover your learning style you can complete an online assessment there's a wide variety of them available consisting of multiple-choice questions however you can also observe yourself and your previous learning experiences to get an idea of how you learn best let's circle back to Jonathan when he's in class and his teacher is lecturing he gets distracted pretty easily words tend to go in one ear and out the other but when his teacher starts using visuals Jonathan finds it easier to focus and understand the material so he might be a visual learner now think about your history how have you enjoyed learning in the past do you prefer watching over listening do you enjoy reading instead or maybe you learn best by doing with hands-on experience if none of these seem to grab you give them each a try and see which one you tend to drift towards each learning style has its own study methods that work best with it let's take a look at how Jonathan and a few of his classmates study as a visual learner Jonathan finds it helpful to color code his notes he finds it helps him to organize information and internalize it better he also creates diagrams while studying finding that they help him to better understand certain structures and ideas Jonathan watches videos to finding them helpful for extra information ruby is more of an auditory learner she likes to study in a group and discuss the material with others sometimes she'll read her notes out loud because it helps her to hear what she's studying in some classes Ruby will record the lecture with her teachers permission of course so that she can go back and listen to it later Tyrell finds that he learns best by reading and writing he takes substantial notes during class and reads over them often when he's trying to memorize something he'll often write it out he also makes sure to read and reread any materials his teacher has assigned the class Raya is a kinesthetic learner she's got a lot of energy and likes doing things labs and hands-on activities helped her to understand certain ideas and topics sometimes she'll review her material while she's walking around she also likes to take breaks in order to release some of her energy allowing her to focus when she returns to studying all four of these students are studying the same material but they're doing so in different ways now this doesn't guarantee that they'll all get the same grades but by determining their learning style and finding study methods that work for them they just might find themselves getting better results GCF global creating opportunities for a better life