What style are you? Finding out may assist you in developing a study plan and can greatly improve the quality of your work. The following information and guidelines may help you determine what style you are.

· Auditory Learning Style

People who learn best this way primarily use their ears and voices. They like to listen to the information and then talk about it. To aid your studies, it may be helpful to repeat things out loud several times to help retain the information. Also, it is best to NOT listen to music or television while you study. You may be very easily distracted by sound.

For other tips, click here:http://www.muskingum.edu/%7Ecal/database/

· Visual Learning Style

People who learn best this way primarily use their eyes. They like to see words and pictures to describe what they are learning. To aid your studies, it may be helpful to create diagrams, flow charts, illustrations and general drawings of what you are trying to learn. Another tip is to organize and rewrite notes.

For more ideas like these, click here: http://www.muskingum.edu/%7Ecal/database/

· Kinesthetic Learning Style

People who fall into this category learn best by touching and manipulating what they are learning. This style is probably the most difficult to use when learning via distance education.

For more information on this style, click here: http://www.muskingum.edu/%7Ecal/database/

· Mixed-modality Learning Style

People in this category are fortunate enough to have the ability to learn via all of the three styles listed above. Because of this, they are able to use a variety of tools to improve the quality of their study time. Try some of the suggestions listed above or click here http://www.muskingum.edu/%7Ecal/database/ for more tips.

If you still aren’t sure what kind of learner you are, take the quizzes at the following links:

http://www.muskingum.edu/%7Ecal/database/
http://www.chaminade.org/inspire/learnstl.htm

You may recall cramming for exams in high school or college--spending a night trying to memorize everything you learned over an entire semester just so you could forget it all immediately after the exam.

Of course, cramming is not the ideal way to study. As you get older, your memory may not work the same way it did when you were 18 years old. On top of that, college courses often require you to retain more information than you are accustomed to remembering.

A survey done by the National Institute for Development and Administration at the University of Texas states that we remember

10% of what we read
20% of what we hear
30% of what we see
50% of what we see and hear
70% of what we say, and
90 % of what we do and say

Knowing this, there are several different exercises and techniques you can practice to improve your memory. Here are a few of them:

· Over-learn material- Even after you think you know the material, continue to review it. You can do this alone or in a group. Develop study cards that you can carry with you and use when you have a few minutes of free time throughout the day.

· Study more frequently in shorter intervals- It has been found that scheduling study time in this way aids in the memory process. Instead of using one day to study for a test, spread the time out over a week. For example, if you’re planning to study 10 hours for an exam, don’t do it all in one day. Try scheduling two hours per day during the week.

· Associate a picture with what you are trying to remember- The more bizarre or obscure the picture, the more likely you will remember it. For example, if you are trying to remember the word "totten", picture a rotten tea bag. Rotten rhymes with totten and the tea bag can remind you to place the 'r' with a 't'.

· Apply difficult concepts to some aspect of your life- If you can associate it with something that is important to you, it will make it easier to recall. For example, if it is a management concept, maybe you can apply it to how you manage your family.

· Organize and rewrite notes- While doing this, the information will be organized in your mind, too. Also, the physical act of writing the information again will increase the likelihood of remembering it later.

· Talk about what you are trying to commit to memory- Being an active participant in class helps solidify items and concepts you might otherwise have trouble remembering.

· Use acronyms- Take the first letter of each word in a phrase to create a new word. A familiar example of this is ROY G. BIV. Many people use this acronym to remember the order of colors in a light spectrum: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet.

Try using each of these exercises and see which one works best for you.

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