# Visual Learning Strategies: A Practical Diagram Study Guide Study smarter with diagrams: redraw from memory, explain aloud, and check against your slides. Includes a worked physics example and a 15-minute routine. Published by BoredProf. 2026-11-03. You have forty lecture slides on cellular respiration, and rereading them feels productive. Then the quiz asks you to sketch the process, and your mind goes blank. What should you have done instead? Draw it yourself, from memory, say what you are drawing out loud, and then check it against the original slide. That is the core of the strategies below. BoredProf publishes this guide, and we mention our own tool where it fits. BoredProf app.boredprof.com Turn Course Slides Into Clear Diagrams Upload your course materials and hear ideas explained while BoredProf draws steps and figures on a whiteboard for you to check. [Start studying with BoredProf](https://app.boredprof.com/?start=1) ## TL;DR - A diagram helps most when you make it yourself and use it to test your memory. Copying or admiring one helps far less. - Four moves cover most courses: redraw a process from memory, label a diagram without notes, pair a sketch with an explanation aloud, and check it against the source slide. - Pick the visual for the task: a flow diagram for a process, a free-body diagram for forces, a concept map for relationships, a table for comparisons. - Research does not support sorting students into fixed “visual” or “auditory” types, but it does support combining words and pictures. - A 15-minute routine, below, turns one slide into one round of drawing, speaking and checking. ## Do “visual learners” exist? What the research says The popular idea is that each person has a visual, auditory or kinesthetic type, and that teaching in your type unlocks better results. A review of the evidence found no robust support for matching instruction to supposed learning styles, as [In-Mind’s overview of learning styles research](https://www.in-mind.org/article/learning-styles-why-they-dont-exist-but-still-persist) explains. You may well prefer pictures, and preferring something is fine. But a preference does not turn into a rule that you must learn only that way. What the research does support is narrower and more useful. Combining verbal and visual representations, called dual coding, gives you two routes back to the same idea. The [Rutgers Learning Centers study strategies guide](https://learningcenters.rutgers.edu/sites/default/files/2023-02/Activities-for-Collaborative-and-Active-Learning.pdf) describes it as a way to strengthen memory, and suggests building diagrams, timelines and infographics, then recreating them from memory and checking your work. So this guide does not ask “are you a visual person?” It asks: what is the task, and which picture fits it? ## Match the visual to the task A useful visual depends on what you are trying to do. Here is a quick map. Task in your course | Visual that usually fits | What it makes visible | Learn a process (respiration, mitosis, a reaction mechanism) | Flow diagram with arrows and labels | Order and cause | Solve a mechanics problem | Free-body diagram | Every force and its direction | Compare ideas (DNA vs. RNA) | Two-column table or Venn diagram | Differences and overlaps | Connect a whole unit | Concept map | Relationships between ideas | Understand chemistry at the particle level | Particulate drawing | What atoms and molecules are doing | Work a word problem in math | Bar model or sketch of the situation | Quantities and how they relate | Two notes on that table. First, concept maps work because they display relationships rather than lists of facts. The [University of Georgia’s concept mapping handout](https://activelearning.uga.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Concept-Mapping.pdf) frames them as a way to organize complex information and support deeper understanding instead of rote memorization. Second, particle-level drawings matter in chemistry because they help students interpret and predict what happens in chemical change, according to [a Grand Valley State University paper on particulate diagrams](https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1045&context=chm_articles). For math, the picture is often the structure of the problem. The [NCETM’s page on the bar model](https://www.ncetm.org.uk/classroom-resources/ca-the-bar-model/) describes how bars help students see the mathematical structure in a problem. The page is about school-age children, but the habit carries up: before you touch an equation, sketch what is known, what is unknown and how they connect. ## Why drawing beats rereading Watching or rereading is passive. Drawing forces you to decide what matters and how the parts connect. In a study of drawing while reading a scientific text, [supported drawing improved comprehension and drawing-test performance](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0361476X14000496) compared with reading alone. The word “supported” matters. The same research stresses that drawing is not automatically helpful. Students need prompts or templates so they focus on meaningful relationships (what causes what, what comes before what) rather than on making a pretty picture. Your sketch can be ugly. It should be correct about the connections. There is a second benefit: honest self-assessment. A 2025 study found that [sketching while reading helped readers judge more accurately](https://link.springer.com/article/10.3758/s13423-025-02730-5) which topics they understood better. A blank spot on your page tells you something a comfortable reread never will. ## Four diagram moves for course materials ### 1. Redraw a process from memory Why it works: pulling the sequence out of your head is retrieval practice, and the gaps show you what you only recognized. How: pick one slide that shows a process. Read it for a minute, close it or turn it face down, and draw the whole thing on blank paper. Use arrows for “leads to” and write a short verb on each arrow. Do not peek until you are stuck for good. ### 2. Label a diagram without notes Why it works: labeling tests whether you can attach names to structures, which is what many exams ask for. How: find or make an unlabeled version of a figure (cover the labels with sticky notes, or redraw the outline). Fill in every label from memory, then add one phrase saying what each part does. A name without a function is trivia. ### 3. Pair a sketch with an explanation aloud Why it works: speaking while drawing gives you the two channels, words and image, in the same moment. It also exposes hand-waving: if you cannot say why an arrow points that way, you do not know yet. How: talk through your drawing as if teaching a classmate who missed the lecture. Say “because” at every arrow. When you say “and then it kind of…”, mark that spot for review. ### 4. Check it against the original slide Why it works: without a check, a wrong sketch just becomes a confident wrong memory. How: compare your drawing to the slide or textbook figure with a different color pen. Use one color for what you got right and another for what you missed or got wrong. Redraw only the missing parts. If the slide itself is unclear, bring that to office hours. ## A worked example: forces on a block on a ramp Here is the whole cycle on a physics problem, with the reason for each step. The problem: a 5 kg block sits on a frictionless 30° ramp. Find the force pulling it down the ramp and the force the ramp exerts on it. Use g = 9.8 m/s². Step 1: Sketch the situation. Draw the ramp, tilt it 30° and put a box on it. Why: the angle and the surface are the geometry of the problem, and they are easy to lose in text. Step 2: Draw a free-body diagram. Replace the box with a dot. Draw weight straight down, labeled mg. Draw the normal force perpendicular to the ramp surface. Why: each force gets one arrow, so you cannot forget one, and the directions are fixed before any arithmetic. Step 3: Tilt your axes. Pick one axis along the ramp and one perpendicular to it. Why: the block can only accelerate along the ramp, so putting an axis there makes the other axis a simple balance. Step 4: Split the weight. The component along the ramp is mg sin 30°. The component into the ramp is mg cos 30°. Why: the angle between the weight arrow and the perpendicular to the ramp equals the ramp angle, so the part along the ramp uses sine and the part into the ramp uses cosine. Check that with your drawing rather than memorizing it. Step 5: Compute. - Along the ramp: 5 × 9.8 × sin 30° = 5 × 9.8 × 0.5 = 24.5 N - Perpendicular: 5 × 9.8 × cos 30° ≈ 5 × 9.8 × 0.866 ≈ 42.4 N Why the normal force is 42.4 N: the block does not move into or out of the ramp, so the forces on that axis balance. The ramp pushes back with exactly the amount the weight pushes in. Step 6: Redraw from memory tomorrow. Cover your work, redraw the free-body diagram, and say aloud why each arrow points where it does. Then compare it to this page, or to your own slide. ### Quick check of understanding Try this without scrolling up. If the ramp were steeper, say 45°, would the force along the ramp get bigger or smaller, and what happens to the normal force? Sketch the two weight components to decide before you calculate. Answer: the force along the ramp gets bigger (sin 45° is about 0.707, so about 34.6 N), and the normal force gets smaller (cos 45° is also about 0.707, so about 34.6 N). At 45° the two components are equal. If your sketch showed the along-ramp arrow growing as the ramp tilts, you read the picture correctly. ## A biology version: redraw the process, then explain it Take any pathway slide, for example the stages of cellular respiration or the phases of mitosis. Use the same cycle. - Study the slide for a minute, then hide it. - Draw boxes for the stages and arrows between them. Under each arrow write what goes in and what comes out (or what changes in the cell). - Explain aloud why one stage has to come before the next. - Reveal the slide and mark every missing box, wrong order or missing input and output. The diagram is a scaffold for the explanation. If the arrows have no “because” attached, you have a picture of the vocabulary and not an understanding of the process. ## A 15-minute routine you can repeat Use this on one slide or one textbook figure at a time. Minutes | What you do | Why | 0 to 2 | Read the slide and identify the one process or idea it shows. | Gives you a single target. | 2 to 3 | Hide the slide. Rate your confidence from 1 to 5 on a sticky note. | Sets a baseline to compare with your result. | 3 to 8 | Redraw from memory on blank paper. Label every part. | Retrieval practice, with the gaps made visible. | 8 to 12 | Explain the drawing aloud, saying “because” at every arrow. | Pairs words with image and exposes shaky links. | 12 to 14 | Reveal the slide and correct your drawing in a second color. | Fixes errors before they set. | 14 to 15 | Write one question you still cannot answer. Compare it to your confidence rating. | Calibrates your sense of what you know. | That last step connects to the sketching research above: a drawing gives you cues about what you really understand, so use them to tune your confidence instead of trusting the feeling of familiarity. ## Make the pictures stick over weeks Visual methods are not a separate system. They work best when you test yourself on what you drew, which is retrieval practice. The Rutgers guide linked above recommends pairing that with spacing (spreading sessions over days) and interleaving (mixing topics) to improve long-term retention and avoid the illusion of knowing. In practice: - Redraw the same diagram after one day, then after a few days, then before the exam. Each time, start blank. - Mix topics in a session: a free-body diagram, then a titration curve sketch, then a cell diagram, instead of ten of the same kind. - Keep a folder of your own redrawn diagrams as a review set, and quiz yourself by covering labels. The basics outside the notebook count too. Sleep, regular meals and breaks all feed into how well any study session lands, and some students also read about [nootropics for memory and learning](https://besupernal.com/best-nootropics-for-memory-and-learning-the-architecture-of-retention). None of that replaces the drawing and self-testing above. ## Where BoredProf fits We built BoredProf for students studying their own course materials. You upload lecture slides, PDFs, Word or PowerPoint files, or a photo of homework. The tutor explains ideas out loud and draws the steps and figures on a whiteboard. You can use voice chat or captions, ask follow-up questions, save lessons and get feedback on handwritten working. The subjects shown on the public site are math, physics, chemistry and biology. That voice-plus-whiteboard format is a model of the move described above: a spoken explanation next to a drawing that builds step by step. You can watch a lesson, then close it and redraw the diagram yourself. Drawings from a tutor do not guarantee better grades, and the point is to understand the idea well enough to check your own sketch against it. The free plan, available without a card, covers one lecture from one course within stated usage caps. Pro is 29.99 CAD per month and Max is 59.99 CAD per month, both with expanded access. Check [the BoredProf pricing and plans](https://boredprof.com) for current limits and eligibility, and the [terms](https://boredprof.com/terms.html), which require users to be 13 or older. BoredProf is a course-specific study aid, not a replacement for your curriculum or a human tutor. If you want to see how a worked solution looks first, browse the [step-by-step worked examples](https://boredprof.com/examples), such as [how to assign R and S](https://boredprof.com/examples/assign-r-and-s), a stereochemistry task that is easier to follow when you can see the drawing. ## Common mistakes to avoid - Copying the slide. Tracing a figure feels like work but tests nothing. Hide it first. - Decorating instead of connecting. Colors and icons are fine, but arrows and labels carry the meaning. The research on drawing stresses relationships over artwork. - Skipping the check. An unchecked diagram can lock in a mistake. Always compare to the source. - Drawing everything the same way. A concept map is the wrong tool for solving a force problem. Use the table near the top. - Doing it once. One session produces familiarity. Spaced redraws produce recall. ## FAQ ### How do I learn math visually? Start by sketching the situation before writing equations: label what is known, mark the unknown and draw how they relate. A bar model, a number line or a graph often reveals the structure of a word problem. Then solve it with symbols and check the answer against your sketch. ### Are visual study techniques only for visual learners? No. The evidence does not support fixed learning types, but it does support combining words and images, as the dual coding research above describes. Any student can use diagrams when the task calls for them, such as a process, a set of forces or a set of relationships. ### How do I know if a diagram is actually helping me? Hide it and redraw it a day later. If you can reproduce the structure and explain each link, it is working. Research on sketching while reading suggests drawing also helps you judge more accurately what you understand. ### Should I use color? Use it for meaning, not decoration. One color for your first attempt and another for corrections is an easy system. Another is one color per type of thing, such as forces versus labels. ### How often should I redraw a diagram? Spread it out: once the day you learn it, again after a day or two, and again before the exam. Starting from a blank page each time makes each pass a real retrieval attempt. Ready to see a spoken explanation and a whiteboard drawing side by side? [Try the BoredProf public demo](https://boredprof.com/#demo), then redraw what you saw from memory. ## Sources - [Learning styles: Why they don’t exist but still persist (In-Mind)](https://www.in-mind.org/article/learning-styles-why-they-dont-exist-but-still-persist) - [Evidence-Based Study Strategies (Rutgers Learning Centers)](https://learningcenters.rutgers.edu/sites/default/files/2023-02/Activities-for-Collaborative-and-Active-Learning.pdf) - [Concept Mapping (University of Georgia)](https://activelearning.uga.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Concept-Mapping.pdf) - [Connecting the Visible World with the Invisible (Grand Valley State University)](https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1045&context=chm_articles) - [The Bar Model (NCETM)](https://www.ncetm.org.uk/classroom-resources/ca-the-bar-model/) - [Drawing pictures during learning from scientific text (ScienceDirect)](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0361476X14000496) - [Benefits from sketching for improving comprehension (Springer)](https://link.springer.com/article/10.3758/s13423-025-02730-5)