Who am I as a learner? (Carolina Araújo)

We all unconsciously are used to study for an exam in a certain way. Now that I am 20 years old and studying the degree of my dreams in university, I believe, I know which is the best way for me to acquire knowledge.  I do not think we usually recall in which way we obtain language or information. But now that I have being asked to do so I have realised how it works for me.

My name is Carolina and I am studying the beautiful degree of Teacher in Primary Education. I believe for the most part of my life I have learnt in the same way: listening and through visual. When I have to study for an exam I always tend to do schemes, or drawings, even songs. Also, the easiest way for me is listening. When I come back to the notes I took during the explanation of the teacher I can remember the examples or ideas just by reading the title. Maths have always been the fork on the road for me, I would rather study lots of paragraphs: when I was in school my teacher did not try to do something to the students that seemed to have difficulties, like me, with his subject. The thing is that I had this teacher for many years, so I did not acquire the basics of maths; leading to a failure in my high school with this subject.

Furthermore, I used to study better when I was in high school at home with full silence and in my room (would not be able to study in other place but my bedroom) but since I have been in university I prefer going to the library with friends. Also, I concentrate more in the mornings and evenings...in the night-time it is kind of impossible for me to even read one sentence without distracting.

Most of the English I have learnt is because of watching movies in original version, listening to music and watching youtube videos -as I have said before I am a listener-.

In my view my strengths as a learner are that I can acquire information in not much time and my organisation. On the contrary, my weaknesses are that it costs me a lot of time to concentrate, I am a slow reader when I have to understand everything on a text to after acquire it, and the biggest weakness I have is that I almost always procrastinate which is something that I have been trying to change lately.

As a conclusion,in my opinion I would like to say that even these are the ways that work better for me, it does not mean that it is the same for everyone. So taking that into account, I find so important for teachers to know different methodologies and work through all of them since each student has a way of learning and acquiring knowledge. This has been a good way to know a bit better how I function as a learner so I can take it into account for my future as a teacher.