Curious how you can switch up your study habits and make studying more enjoyable? Understanding your preferred learning style could help.
In this article, you’ll understand one model of learning styles, take a learning style quiz, and learn about other psychological concepts to help you optimize your study sessions.
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What Are Learning Styles?
Learning styles are preferences for different methods of understanding and retaining information. Theories about learning styles date back to the ’70s, and many models of learning styles exist.
In this article and learning style quiz, we’ll focus on only one of those models: the VARK model that Neil Fleming and Colleen Mills proposed in 1992. Fleming and Mills’ model includes four learning styles:
- Visual: A preference to learn via graphs, charts, flow charts, and other diagrams
- Aural: A preference to learn by hearing information spoken in lectures and discussions
- Read/Write: A preference to learn from information printed in words
- Kinesthetic: A preference to learn through experience or practical examples
According to the VARK model, people who favor two or more modalities equally or don’t clearly prefer any of them are multimodal.
What Is My Learning Style? Quiz
Curious about your learning style? Take the learning style quiz below and sign up to find out which learning style you prefer and which study strategies are compatible with that style.
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Other Psychological Concepts to Help Your Study Habits
Taking a learning style quiz isn’t the only way to apply psychological concepts to your studying. Consider these other concepts as well to optimize how you study.
Self-Efficacy
“Self-efficacy is generally defined in my research as the level, intensity, and strength of a person’s belief in their own ability to successfully execute a task or accomplish a desired goal,” says Terrell Strayhorn, professor of education and psychology and vice provost and interim dean of the school of arts and sciences at Virginia Union University.
In other words, if you believe that you’re capable of studying well enough to ace an exam, you’re more likely to do well on it.
Self-efficacy is goal-oriented and task-specific. Major drivers of efficacy include:
- Verbal persuasion
- Vicarious learning
- Social support
- Mastery experiences with feedback
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In the context of the exam example, verbal persuasion could mean your professor telling you she believes you’ll do well on the exam. One example of vicarious learning could be watching videos on YouTube of people studying or sharing study tips. For social support, meet with a study group and hype each other up before the exam. Investing significant time in studying and asking others how you can improve would be a mastery experience with feedback.
“If people want to improve their study habits, they need to boost confidence in their own study skills – repeat after me: ‘I am smart enough. I’m capable of learning. Good students study,'” Strayhorn says.
Sense of Belonging
“Literature shows that students’ sense of belonging is positively correlated with co-curricular engagement, grades, time on task, and overall well-being,” Strayhorn says. “Studying can be a solitary act, but the evidence is clear that, as humans, we are most at home in community with others.”
With this in mind, consider forming a study group to study with others.
Attention Span
“The adult attention span is 20 minutes; therefore, ‘cramming’ for long periods at the last minute may not work for everyone, especially if you don’t have a photographic memory,” Strayhorn says.
Don’t be too hard on yourself if you have trouble focusing for extended periods. Instead, plan to study in small increments with frequent breaks. The Pomodoro technique is a popular approach.
When we first learn to walk or run, we don’t learn it all at once; we do so gradually by strengthening muscles through practice.
“The brain works similarly,” Strayhorn says. “The brain is a muscle that has to be exercised and strengthened over time with small incremental study blocks/sessions.”
>>MORE: Read tips for making the most out of college.
Learning Style Quiz: The Bottom Line
Taking a learning style quiz can introduce you to study methods that align with your preferences, but remember: your results don’t fully capture the complexity of how you learn. If you prefer the aural learning style, that doesn’t mean you should put your handwritten notes through the paper shredder. Your learning preferences may vary for different subjects, and they may change over time.
“As a social psychologist and education researcher, my own scholarship has consistently shown that students’ aspirations, interests, preferences, and attitudes constantly change, grow, morph, shift, and develop over time, as they mature and environments vary,” Strayhorn says.
“So the goal, in my opinion, is NOT about matching a single instructional approach to a student’s current preferred learning style in some static, single moment. No, rather it’s about building diverse, engaging learning environments (i.e., classrooms, labs, schools) marked by a smooth blend of evidence-based instructional strategies that change and vary throughout the day, from unit to unit, or class to class,” he says.
Ready to put your learning style quiz results into action? Try a free job simulation on Forage.
