Welcome to week 4 of our Study Success Series! This week we’re focusing on Auditory Learning Tips. Using multiple senses to study helps you remember the facts forever and around 30% of you learn best through auditory methods. Here are some tips to integrate auditory learning into your studies:
Record Your Lecture
When professors lecture, the amount of information they present can be overwhelming. How can you be sure you took notes on everything you’ll need to know? What if you missed something important? What if you struggle to listen and take notes at the same time? Recording your lectures is an easy solution and will help you become a better auditory learner. If the lecture is recorded, you can listen to it as many times as you need. This is helpful because when you’re in class hearing the lecture for the first time, you can really focus on what your professor is saying and absorb the information. Then, later, you can replay the lecture and take notes, pausing as often as you need to ensure you didn’t miss anything important. Your smartphone probably has recording capabilities, or you can purchase a recording device like this one.
Another bonus to this tip is you can keep the recording forever and refer back to it if you need to. Just remember, listening to a recording can make many people prone to distractions, so keep the multitasking for later.
Join a Study Group
Everyone learns differently, even when learning the same information. We recommend gathering some of your peers to form a study group. This allows you to bring together those different learning types, giving you the opportunity to better understand the material as you interact with your classmates. Listen to them as they discuss topics, and ask questions throughout. The next person may explain something differently from the last, and hearing them go through the information will help you retain it better too. Be sure to join in the dialogue by offering your own explanations and thoughts. By engaging in your learning this way, it will help you remember the information better because you’ll help each other piece together a full comprehension of the topic.
Visit Your Professor
Auditory learners often need to hear things more than once and appreciate feedback to gauge their understanding of a topic. Your professor has scheduled office hours so take advantage of them! They may also offer virtual meetings to help you outside of class time. Meet with your professor to review material they covered in class, or to ask for a topic to be explained again, or you can ask your teacher to rephrase a certain topic and go into more detail. If you are an auditory learner, doing this will help your retention and comprehension tremendously. Ask permission to record your conversation, and then you’ll have it to listen to again later. All of this will help you recall information later during a test.
Answer Questions Out Loud
Most of us don’t speak aloud when we’re alone. There’s a common theme that you may judge unfavorably for talking to yourself. But, really, who cares if it helps you learn those challenging topics for exams, right? We all process information silently by reading materials to ourselves and mentally asking and answering as we go. Instead, as you work through review questions, try reading the question out loud and answering it the same way. Explain the reasoning behind your responses, too, instead of just saying only the answers. You’ll be using your auditory learning abilities as you hear your own voice asking, answering, and explaining, and the more you hear it the more you’ll remember later. You can also check out some of our previous study tips that included the recommendation to explain difficult topics to a friend or family member; or your pet if nobody else is around. It may seem a little strange at first, but the more you practice this study technique the more normal it will seem and the better your retention will be.
Use Story Mode on Picmonic
If you’ve ever had something happen that was really funny, extremely awkward, frightening, or painfully embarrassing, then you probably remember it completely and in vivid detail. When something is memorable like that, your brain has a much easier time recalling it. This even works for the less interesting facts. If those boring facts are presented in a memorable way, they’ll stick with you. How can you make them memorable? With Picmonic.
Did you know that Picmonic has a story mode? Story mode creates wacky stories about the medical topics you’re studying. These stories are so unexpected that they make recalling information a breeze because you will remember every detail you heard. And auditory learners rejoice: You can listen to the story again and again, helping to cement the specifics into your brain. When you sit down to take a test, the story and all its unconventionally presented details will come back to you.
Are you ready to put these auditory tips to use and watch your retention and scores go up? It’s time to turn on story mode with Picmonic today, record your lectures, visit your professors, join a study group, or start talking to yourself. By exploring auditory learning techniques, you will have more opportunities to hear what you’re learning and watch it pay off!
