Do you learn best by hearing spoken instructions or listening to lectures? Do you often find yourself humming a song you can’t get out of your head? Thirty percent of the population is considered an auditory learner (think “audio”). Auditory learners are those who have the most success with storing information short-term and long-term by using techniques that use the ears as a connection to the brain. In other words, auditory learners tend to remember things best when they hear them. Music is typically a strong influence in their educational style, and they tend to remember things better by listening to them, rather than writing them down or looking at them.
If you are an auditory learner, there are ways to work with this ability to make it work for you. Certain techniques work better for auditory learners rather than visual learners or kinesthetic learners. For example, for auditory learners, a great strategy for remembering things is to make up a silly song with the material. Auditory learners also benefit from audio tapes that review the material, study groups and study partners that can voice the information to them, reviewing and listening to lectures that have been recorded, or by reading the material out loud or explaining the material to another person.
These strategies allow the auditory learner the chance to HEAR the information, which falls in the category of how they learn best. Mnemonics, word links, and reading out loud are also helpful techniques. If you are an auditory learner, it is time to fully understand what will work best for you when it comes to improving and mastering memorization. Don’t be embarrassed when you bring a recorder to class or others catch you singing a song. Have fun, instead, and remember the information you need to know.