Your VRK Preference – Join the Discussion

VRK definitely sounds right. Anything speech related with learning totally throws me off due to auditory processing disorder. I make mind-maps to study in combination with creating an index of sub-topics which compromise the encompassing topic. Sort of like a personal Wikipedia of things I’m studying and learning after reading about them. I also study by physically moving symbolized versions of the study sub-topics around my room, sort of like a physical mind-map that I piece together for practice. For physical skills that involve art or technology I find that trial and error is the best way to go; getting my hands dirty. One of the biggest things that have helped me retain information has been creating my own tests to take by writing down questions as I read. The other big one is creating and doing a project in relation to the information I just learned. Putting the new information into practice right away tends to make it unforgettable. I also like to make charts to visualize information and print them out to cut out and re-arrange with glue or velcro, it makes seeing the connections between information so much easier. I wish I could learn through lectures, talking things out, or similar but it is just not in the cards for me! As a result I’ve come up with numerous study techniques that are specific to my needs as a learner. I was without these strategies in grade school. As a child and teenager I believed that I was stupid and I felt undereducated and like a total failure. Now as an adult I have been able to teach myself many advanced and specialized skills by using combined learning styles. I am also able to teach others. I am happy that something like VARK exists because I feel that it could help others who are similar to me. I wish I had known about it before today because I’m sure it would have saved me a lot of time when trying to understand how to adapt to a mostly auditory learning world.

I’m a V16 A5 R11 K13. I believe I scored low on A because aural information is the only mode where you have no control over the pace at which the information is delivered. I hate listening to people talk because if they speak too quickly then I don’t have time to process what they are trying to say. Similarly, if they speak to slowly, then I zone out and stop listening to them. When I am in conversations, I feel like I am always hunting for information and trying to extract it from other people as if I am on a mission.

For me, learning though verbal communication is rarely pleasurable because I’m hyper focused on retrieving and not losing the precious information I want. I tend to interrupting others and paraphrase what they are saying which they find annoying. But usually, they end up forgiving me if I explain that I am interrupting because I’m having trouble understanding them. Then, I’ll restate what they think is obvious and say “yeah that’s what I just said!” Then look at me like I’m learning impaired LOL! I’m like that kid in the classroom that is furiously waving their hand while the teacher is still talking.

I believe my aversion to the lack of control in the delivery of aural information is what caused me to become multimodal VRK. Regardless of the information being visual, read/write or kinesthetic it is most important that I can absorb the concepts at my own pace.

When communicating information to others, I rely heavily on diagrams and white boards/scrap paper. I also use a tremendous amount of real world concrete examples if my verbal communication is unclear. This is not for their benefit but rather for my own because without visuals and real world examples, I have difficulty expressing myself.

When it comes to studying:
Firstly, I study texts by writing a single sentence summary after every paragraph of written text. I find the act of summarizing and paraphrasing highly enjoyable.

Then, I copy and paste any diagrams, graphs or charts into a single PowerPoint side and stare at them all on the same screen/page so that they etch into my brain. I will be most likely to remember the graphics when it comes to testing.

Then I add in hierarchical bulleted lists of information around the visuals (these are usually key words and concepts which have not be adequately captured by the graphics and they are always hierarchical). I stare at the single page and think about how all the bits of information relate to each other. Then I have to resist the urge to over-format everything since I can get pretty OCD about formatting. This single page is like gold and become a complete and precious study aid moving forward. If I have enough time to complete this entire process, then I will usually achieve outstanding marks but a lot of the time the good grades end up feeling secondary to the sense of achievement I feel from producing the actual study aid itself. When I have the time to fully engaged in my learning process, grades become an afterthought since I already know that I will ace anything that they can throw at me.

I’m definitely a VRK learner. I don’t mind any of those options but definitely don’t learn through audio only. I tend to use different methods of learning for different topics rather than being able to apply any method to any topic. For example, for the question about tours I’d look at a map (visual/kinaesthetic) but for revision for uni I’ll write and re-write notes.