Testing out vs. Sitting in class

[sanantone]

As a visual learner I find it hard to learn things in a lecture. My mind wanders I don't pay attention and I waste a lot of time listening to a lecture I then have no memory of. When I read a book or sit on the computer looking things up I learn more. Even with math I need to learn it by both seeing and doing, I can't just listen and watch someone else do the problem. In one of my jobs my boss tryed to teach me how to do something by watching him and listen to what he said. He was getting frustrated because I wasn't learning even after three or four demonstrations, finally I said let me write down each step as we go along that way I get the tactile learning from the writing then I can use my notes to do the visual learning. He was surprised at how fast I learned new things doing it that way, he was an oral learner. As a teacher who works with special ed students a lot I have learned that if a student doesn't learn it the first time teach it a different way the second time and the third time; one of those times you will find that child's learning style.

I have attended in seat classes for all of my chemistry lab courses I had some great teachers who made things more understandable with the labs. In my junior year of high school (an eon ago) I took chemistry because I had to have it for nursing school. My teacher was boring and spoke in a monotone, I learned nothing I could not even understand balancing an equation. I finally dropped that course because I didn't want the bad grade. I took chemistry again Senior year and I had a great teacher who made the subject exciting, I learned and it was easy. So the teacher can make a difference.

I also am in my empty nest (I wish) stage of life, I find I don't have the patience to sit in a class and learn with the average student, I want to cut to the chase. Most of the subjects I took CLEP etc. for I already knew something about others I had to start from scratch. I retain the info I find interesting and even spend time going onto them deeper, the subjects that bore me stay in my head only long enough to pass the test.

You sound like a visual-verbal learner. I always knew I was not an auditory or visual learner, but I did not know that there were two types of visual learners: visual-non-verbal and visual verbal. I also knew I wasn't a tactile learner because I found it absolutely boring and pointless when my teachers made us use blocks and Legos in math class. The only thing left was kinesthetic learner (someone who learns by doing), so I assumed I was that. It wasn't until I was made to take a learning style test at Colorado Tech in an orientation course that I found out I was a visual-verbal learner. Then, everything started to make sense. I would get bored and zone out when watching someone perform a task, but managed to teach myself a lot by reading. One way you can tell you're a visual-verbal learner is if you prefer to see written directions than a map. When I would print out directions from Google Maps, most of the time, I wouldn't bother printing the map. It was easier for me to find my way by knowing my destination was 1 mile away from the last turn than going off of a map.

I do have to add that some psychologists believe that learning styles don't exist.
Learning Styles Don't Exist - YouTube

He could have a point that there could be other reasons why someone has trouble learning from one mode of delivery other than having a learning style. It could be that I'm not good at watching and listening to others because I'm ADHD-inattentive. Also, my verbal intelligence is higher than my spatial intelligence.