Are you ready to achieve your study session goals?

By: Cat

When studying, do you find it easier to gain knowledge through cue cards, colourful sticky notes, or videos, rather than listening to the lessons or reading the textbook? It might be because you are a visual learner! Visual aids like diagrams, written notes, and photos help visual learners retain information better.

Here are the top five study habits for visual learners:

1. Use Visual Aids

One good study habit for visual learners is incorporating charts, graphs, diagrams, and mind maps into your study materials. Visual aids help with organizing information and making complex concepts easier to understand and remember. Keep it simple and be consistent. Try to use high-quality images and highlight the key information. There are many FREE digital note apps that you can consider using to create visual aids for your study sessions, such as Notability, Microsoft OneNote, Squid, and Box Notes.

2. Colour Code Your Notes

You can use different colours for different topics, concepts, or categories in your notes. This can help in quickly identifying and recalling information. Highlighters and coloured pens can also be particularly useful. You can try to put the information into different categories and assign colours to each category such as “Pink” for “Important Information,” “Green” for Definitions and Key Terms,” and “Purple” for Dates and Numbers.”

3. Watch Videos and Tutorials

Another visual study habit you can try to incorporate is watching educational videos, tutorials, and other visual
content to reinforce your learning. They usually provide explanations that can be more effective than reading text alone.

You’d be surprised at how much we can learn from video tutorials—whether it’s someone explaining a tricky concept in front of a whiteboard or an animation that provides different, in-depth examples than your professor, visual content can come in handy!

4. Create Flashcards

Make flashcards with key information, terms, or concepts. Adding images or drawing diagrams on the flashcards can enhance memory retention and make studying more engaging.

5. Visualize Information

It can be helpful to visualize the material you are learning. Understanding and remembering complicated subjects can be aided by visualizing data, processes, and scenarios. So, when you try to remember what you’ve learned, those visuals will help recall the knowledge that you attained before and in a logical way as well.

So, to all the visual learners out there, take advantage of the wide variety of study methods before you! Colours, graphs, videos, and charts may be your best friend for your next test. Even colour-coding your notes after class might be helpful, so take a chance and try out these study habits!

Want to make the most out of your student life?

Check out these Academic Integrity blogs, read a blog from a Sheridan student’s perspective, and learn how to file your Academic Appeal!