I continue to blog about recollections while attending Iowa State University in the mid-1990s. Seems like yesterday I was on campus, but alas, time has taken us all much into the future…and it is fun to have fond memories.
In the Spring of 1993, I took 12 credits. The courses were: Legal Environment of Business, Business and Social Science Calculus, Business Organization and Management, Principles of Marketing. I remember these classes (in an earlier post I praised the tutor I hired to get me through the Calculus course). After this semester, I realized – hey these courses don’t really trip my trigger (other than the legal business course).
As I wrote about in my blog post on January 16, 2012 – Part 9 I switched my major to Community Health Education. In a very small nutshell ~ we’ll say a filbert ~
Health Education enhances the quality of life for all people. For more detail, please click here – What is CHE? I was very happy to find this major, it really fit in well with my interests, personality and learning style preference.
Now with a new academic outlook, I signed up for 17 credits in the Fall of 1993. My courses were: Principles of Biology, Emergency Health Care, Personal & Consumer Health, Drug Education, Individual and Family Life Development and Normal Personality. All As and Bs, well and a C in biology. GPA is 3.24.
I worked really hard for my grade in the biology course – which included a class and a lab. Making my stains, focusing my microscope, studying those micro-organisms, memorizing scientific names, working with my biology partner, turning in lab work and taking tests… I was genuinely trying to be positive about the whole course – but not really “getting” what I think I was supposed to be “getting” Get what I’m getting at?
Do you learn best by hearing someone say something? By seeing it written down in words? By studying diagrams or pictures? By doing it yourself, or with a partner? All of these ways of learning can be useful, but most people don’t have a clue about the best way for them to learn. The key to passing many a course at the college level (or to find success at tackling a project at work) is to first figure out how you learn. Then apply that information to how the instructor structures the course (or you supervisor or team members are structuring the project.)
I recommend you get to know your own learning style to figure out how you “get things”. Take a minute or two to take this short VARK questionnaire that provides you with a profile of your learning preferences. Here is a link to more information about VARK
I took the questionnaire and my scores were:
Visual: 3
Aural: 1
Read/Write: 4
Kinesthetic: 7
I have a kinesthetic learning style preference according to the test.
You can also look at the various studying strategies available on that VARK website to find some that work best for each of these learning styles. I hope this is helpful….even if you are no longer a college student. For more information about your learning style, see good old Wikipedia – I learn from it!
If you work like I work, you learn something new every day. I personally like to learn (or to memorize) using a double “clip art with acronym” method. For example and this is one we all know. What are the seven conventional colors of the rainbow?
Roy G Biv ~ You have a visual in two ways!
Stay tuned, for part 13 of “my story” and how I mix up my thoughts on work, life, love and passions as a rehab counselor. Next week I’ll write about how I used FAT to teach.
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