Making up about 65% of the population, visual learners absorb and recall information best by seeing. Some of their primary characteristics include:

• Love books, magazines, and other reading materials
• Relate best to written information, notes, diagrams, maps, graphs, flashcards, highlighters, charts, pictures, computers.
• Like to have pen and paper handy
• Enjoy learning through visually appealing materials
• Feel frustrated and restless when unable to take notes.
• May have exceptional photographic memories
• Can remember where information was located on a page
• Need a quiet place to study
• Benefit from recopying or making their own notes, even from printed information
• Have trouble following long lectures
• Tend to be good at spelling
• Benefit from field trips where observation skills can be used
• Tend to be detail-oriented
• Are usually organized and tidy
• Often ask for verbal instructions to be repeated
• Benefit from previewing reading material.
• Skilled at making graphs, charts or other visual displays
• Write down directions or draw a map
• Need to see the instructor’s facial expressions and body language
• Concentrate better with clear line of sight to blackboard or visual aids
• Remember how people looked and dressed in the past
• Prefer written instructions to oral ones.
• Don’t remember names easily.

Suggestions for Visual Learners

• Write things down
• Jot down key points on post-it notes and display around the house
• Copy what’s on the board
• Sit near the front of the classroom to see instructor clearly
• Write key words
• Create visual reminders of auditory info
• Use mind maps to summarize large tracts of information
• Take notes
• Make lists
• Watch videos
• Use flashcards
• Use highlighters, underlining, etc.

Preferred Test Styles for Visual Learners

essays, diagramming, maps, demonstrating a process

Worst Test Type

listen and respond

Possible Career Paths

visual artists, inventors, architects, interior designers, mechanics, engineers, navigators, sculptors