Study Tips for Visual Learners

Read once and then quiz yourself. Retrieving that information is what actually produces more robust learning and memory.

Even if you get the answers wrong, you'll still have an idea of what you don't know. This helps guide your studying more effectively.

Relate new information to prior information for better learning.

During a second reading, try to connect new information to something you already know.

Using sticky notes is extremely useful when studying for an exam: not only do you summarize the information, but you can also go directly to the needed page, as the note is stuck to that very page.

Graph organizers are forms that you can fill out with important information. When starting to actually learn for a test, you just have to go again through this information. Furthermore, graph organizers such as Cornell notes worksheet enable you to check your knowledge at any given moments through different quizzes.

Learning is a two-step process:

• Read/listen: feeding ourselves new information.
• Process and recall what you’ve just ‘learned’: connecting new materials to what we already knew.

You should not waste your time by committing unimportant details to memory. 

Your focus should be on understanding the bigger picture, on how things relate to each other.

Most learning techniques with lots of theory and colorful infographics do not assist in making the information stick in our minds.

There is a need for ‘desirable difficulties’ which exercise our minds and translate into long-term retention of knowledge.

.. or a Q&A session primes the brain to absorb the information afterward, and failing to answer it initially is part of the game.

The brain needs to know that it doesn’t know.

If you try to force yourself to just memorize random facts, you’re likely to forget them. 

We will most likely remember only the information that was meaningful to us, that we’ve been able to connect to our lives and our experiences.

We learn best when we perform the tasks we’re trying to learn. 

No matter how good your grades were at college, most of your learning takes place once you enter the workplace and start applying what you've learned.

The page is organized by topic. While in class, start with the main topic. Branch off and write a heading for each of the subtopics. Add important notes underneath each subtopic.

This method is useful for visual learners. It helps you understand the relationships between topics.

Use headings and bullet points with supporting facts.

• During a lesson, begin your notes with a bullet point for the main topic.
• The first subtopic is placed below and indented slightly to the right.
• Jot down the details below your heading and slightly to the right.

This method is useful when a topic includes a lot of detail.

Learning how to learn is critical for everyone. Most of us have to deal with a changing world and to learn how to manage tons of new information.

However, most of our learning methods are outdated and far from optimal. It may even be giving us an illusion of learning, like re-reading and highlighting that don't provide proper feedback to show what you haven't learned.

Focused and diffuse modes provide two models for how we develop, elaborate, deepen and broaden connections. Both methods are important.

• The focused mode of learning is about bringing related concepts together into a unit, called a chunk. 
• The diffuse mode operates through a wider net of connecting general ideas across different fields. We use this diffuse mode while we sleep, exercise or daydream.

A memory chunk is a solid connection in your mind that relates various bits and pieces of information. 

Focus on the concept you want to form a chunk of. Write down the basic ideas of what the concept is all about. Build up from these fundamentals to finally create a chunk.

While reviewing material, recall it instead of just reading it passively. Try and recall in a different setting than where you studied it.

“Whatever problem you’re struggling with is probably addressed in some book somewhere written by someone a lot smarter than you."

- Ryan Holiday

...in terms of reading retention:

• Impression
• Association
• Repetition