Youth Talk

By the time this column is out, I will have finished with finals week at university. Luckily for me, it was short, sweet and full of in-between breaks, breaks which I’m embarrassed to admit I used more for extra shut-eye than for getting extra revision done.

Being an English major, the study methods I have got to employ when studying differ greatly from what I needed to do in my final years of high school where those methods were garnered more towards figuring how to solve mathematical problems (and problems they were) and somehow try to cram physics derivations into my head. Studying for tests now is more up my alley, as it involves mostly reading, and I think after having done it so much in school, reading has become the study method I’m most comfortable with. 

It seems that the notion that learners can be classified into groups such as ‘visual’, ‘auditory’ or even ‘analytical’ based on how they best learn has, quite disappointingly, since been debunked. Instead studies show that the students who perform best academically are the ones with a good ‘working memory’ – a very temporary memory, kind of like when you do mental calculation and need to remember the carry-on. Regardless of whether they best understand concepts by looking at diagrams or processing the nitty-gritty aspects of it, they are able to perform well. Still, one can’t deny that each student will have a preferred learning method.

Personally, I prefer solo studying as opposed to group sessions, and writing as I read works specifically well with languages. And I feel that, thanks to constant connectivity, students today need not limit themselves to just one kind of learning, as audio-visual and other material to aid your time in the classroom exist in plenty and at the tip of a finger. It’s a good time for learners!