See below on this guide for links and resources to help you develop good study habits and stay organized.

Campus Resources

Get help with assignments and study skills, learn about learning opportunities, and learn tips for managing college life at the following places:

Center for Tutoring and Academic Excellence 

Writing Center 

University Libraries 

First and Second Year Advising Office

Career Exploration at the Career Development Center

Center for Experiential Learning

Study Abroad Office

Wellness Center

Rememeber to reach out to professors, classmates, peer advisors, RAs, and other campus mentors

Guides of Interest

Managing Your Research 

Getting Started with Research at the Libraries

Myers-Briggs Workshop Guide

Here are a few general tips to help you work, study, and succeed in college.

• Set goals, short-term and long-term
• Participate in class
• Take advantage of the various learning opportunities around campus
• Use campus resources and don't hesitate to ask questions and get help with your coursework
• Manage your reading loads by locating key points and arguments, taking good notes, and summarizing what you've read to make sure you understand everything
• Review your notes outside of class
• Prep for tests
• Stay organized
• Stay healthy! Take care of your body as well as your mind

You can use these resources to learn more about learning styles.

Get an overview of learning styles and find additional articles and resources

Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences, which goes beyond traditional visual or verbal learning preferences to include things like musical tendencies and body/kinesthetic preferences.

• See an overview at Wikipedia and check out the extensive bibliography
• Take a Multiple Intelligences self-assessment quiz

Myers-Briggs Types

• Learn more about Myers-Briggs and download infographics for different Myers-Briggs personality types.
• Take a free Jung Typology to get a sense of your Myers-Briggs type
• See the pop culture figure that shares your Myers-Briggs type

Felder and Solomon

Read more about the Felder-Solomon theory of learning styles

Identifying Your Learning Style

There's a lot of information and resources available to help you identify your learning style, just as there are a lot of different types of learning styles. From the more traditional verbal vs. auditory vs. tactile learning styles to Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences, which includes things like musical intelligence and sensitivity to nature. 

There are a lot of learning styles out there, but the main thing to remember is that it can be helpful to take some time to reflect and figure out how you learn and work best. Do you get distracted when you're around lots of people? Try finding a quieter place to study. Does music help you think? Make a study playlist. Do visuals help you learn? Try drawing maps and images in your notes. 

Learning Style Theories

Learning style theories often use different terms to describe different learning style categories or areas, but the basic breakdown of concepts is often the same across different theories. The areas that often come up in different learning style theories and classification systems are:

• How you interact with others
• How you process information
• How you evaluate information
• How you make decisions 

By being aware of how your best work and learn, you can develop good work habits and study skills. 

Select Learning Style Theories - Myers-Briggs, Felder-Soloman, and Kolb

Here are two types of learning styles placed in comparison: The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and the Felder-Soloman Index. Learn more about Myers-Briggs and download inforgraphics here. Read more on Felder-Soloman here: Learning Styles and Strategies

Another learning styles theory that might be of interest is Kolb's model, which focuses on how we experience learning. You can learn more here.

Taking Notes to Suit Your Learning Style

By understanding your own learning style, you can be a better note-taker. 

• Are you a visual learner? Try color coded notes or draw symbols to help you stay organized
• Are you an auditory learner? Try recording your lectures or talking over what you learned with a study group
• Are you a just the facts or an ideas person? Structure your notes in a way that makes sense to you, whether it's using bullet points or drawing conceptual maps. 
• Do you like to digest content on your own? Take some time to review your notes on your own and put them in a format that works best for you. 

The list goes on! Think about how you like to process information and interact with people, and then adopt a note-taking and studying style that best suits you. 

General Note-Taking Tips 

• Be on the look-out for main ideas, whether it is in a lecture or in an article you're reading 
• Think about how new ideas you come across relate back to old ideas you've already encountered. 
• Find an organizational method that works best for you 
• Use aids to help you remember key points, whether it's charts or color-coding 

Resources

Check out Drury University's Study Skills and Academic Success guide for links and resources. 

Read this excellent LifeHacker post about taking notes 

See Princeton's quick guide to taking great notes 

Visit Hack College for posts on developing study skills, including this one on organization and time management

Image courtesy Neil Conway, via Flickr and the Creative Commons

There are a lot of tools out there to help you keep organized. See more at the Managing Your Research guide.

Storage Tools

• Evernote-- A suite of tools (including apps, a desktop application, and a web service) designed for note-taking and archiving. Evernote lets you clip PDFs and web pages, and you can sync content across devices.
• Dropbox -- A free cloud storage service that lets you share and access your videos, docs, photos, etc. from various devices.
• Google Drive -- Store, collaborate, and work on documents, presentations, and spreadsheets.
• Zotero - Manage and store resources and citations.

Mind Mapping

• bubble.us -- Free online brainstorming and mind mapping tool
• Mind42 - Another free online mind mapping tool.
• XMind - Mind mapping software that lets you create a variety of different maps.
• Scriblink -- A free online whiteboard.

Note Taking

• Squareleaf -- Create virtual sticky notes and arrange your notes and lists however you like.
• Simplenote -- An online note-taking application.
• MS One Note -- A Microsoft Office add-on (paid) where you can take notes, embed files, and annotate documents.

Organization and Productivity Tools

• Track Class - A free online application that helps you keep track of your school work. Track Class sends you reminders, lets you schedule assignments, and also functions as a note-taking tool.
• Outliner -- An iPad and iPhone app that helps you take organized notes.
• Self-Control - A free Mac app that block distracting websites.
• Focus Booster - Focus on one task for 25 minutes
• f.lux - Brightens or dims your computer, depending on the time of day 

Collaboration

• Podio -- Coordinate tasks, share updates, and share files in real-time.
• Doodle - Schedule events with groups, large and small 

To-do lists

• Wunderlist
• Remember the Milk
• Todoist

• Being literate at something means being good at something
• You can be literate at music, sports, computers, cooking
• Information literacy is about dealing with information – whether it’s finding answers to a question or using information to make something cool, like an instructional video or a blog post

How does information literacy relate to learning styles?

• Information literacy involves a set of best practices skills that can help you become really good at dealing with information
• Your learning style involves your preferences for dealing with information
• Work habits are how you implement your style preferences for dealing with information and best practice information literate skills to get things done!