Study Advice for Read & Write Learners
Read & Write Learners make good traditional studiers. They fit in with the conventional, school-taught study method of reading textbooks and writing notes.
Read & Write Learners are good at taking notes during class. They study best by reading over these notes or copying them out.
Are you or is your teen a Read & Write Learner?
Here are a few characteristics of Read & Write Learners. See if they sound familiar. Read & Write learners:
- enjoy reading (funnily enough!).
- would rather read by themselves or to others than be read to.
- often take exhaustive or verbatim notes in class.
- work best in quiet areas.
- prefer to study by themselves to avoid distraction.
- like articulate teachers who put a lot of information into sentences and notes.
- won't hesitate to find a definition in a dictionary.
Study Tips for Read & Write Learners
Read & Write Learners should use more traditional study techniques that have them reading textbooks, note-taking, and rewriting their notes.
Take notes. Lots of notes.
This is especially important for Read & Write Learners! The act of writing out notes will help cement the ideas and facts into a student's head.
Not only does note taking put the information from a lesson into words, it involves the student actually writing them down themselves.
The greatest tip for writing study notes is writing them in your own words!I can't stress how incredibly important that part is.
Rewrite these notes
"Rewriting your notes" is an action we swear by. Yet many students underestimate the importance of rewriting their notes - they've already taken them!
It doesn't matter! Especially for Read & Write Learners, rewriting notes is the most efficient way to get those important facts drilled into their brain.
Mind you, notes shouldn't be re-written word for word. The process of reading, interpreting, putting into their own words, and then writing these down again, is the best type of study that a Read & Write Learner can do.
Take down LOTS of notes during class
Read & Write Learners need as many written notes as possible. Unfortunately, textbooks often don't capture the same information that a student was taught in class.
Read & Write Learners should put in the time during class to write down all the notes they possibly can. This is so, when it comes to studying for exams, they can use their own notes as a starting place. From here they can fill in the gaps, and review the harder concepts with textbooks.
Don't lose handouts
Read & Write Learners study very well from handouts - especially if they're tailored well to the lesson. Students should keep a track of all the printout material that their teachers give them throughout the year and incorporate these into their study.
Use bullet point lists
Read & Write Learners learn well when they condense information into small, easily ingestible bits. Bullet point lists are the easiest way to put down a lot of information in one easy-to-read format.
The good news is pretty much every subject lends itself to bullet points.
Turn diagrams and charts into words
Some Read & Write Learners don't learn particularly well through diagrams and charts. They either don't know how to interpret them, they wouldn't know how to re-create them, or they simply don't process information in that way.
A Read & Write Learner should add as many subheadings and notes to every important diagram or chart.
This helps Read & Write Learners in several ways. First, it puts the information into words (which they, themselves have written down). Secondly, they will be more likely to remember their own definitions and explanations of what the diagram contained then what the textbook had written. And finally, during an exam they will be able to explain a chart or recall the important parts of a diagram that they would otherwise struggle to remember.
If you or if your teen is a Read & Write Learner, and you have a suggestion for us to add to the list we'd love to hear it! Tell us here.
A cautionary note
Most people don’t fit perfectly into one of the four learning style categories. Most students have a combination Learning Style!
So, what does this mean? It means that your teen should explore different ways of learning and choose to use the ones that they find most useful.
For more study tips, check out the other learning styles: Auditory Learning, Kinaesthetic Learning, Visual Learning.
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