Textbooks and Learning Styles

I guess these topics are related but probably should have been two separate posts... oh well!

As school comes nearer, I have begun my final preparations for this semester. This is the first year I have attempted to do these three things: get a hold of class textbooks before school begins, get them other sources than the school bookstore, and pre-read/learn for my classes.
Figuring out which textbooks are assigned for this semester has been difficult. Most of my classes didn't update on the day UBC told me they would. Apparently there have been some technical issues, but also some courses don't have assigned professors yet.
Getting a hold of the textbooks at a cheaper price has been much easier. So far, I've gotten one textbook through amazon.ca, one through craigslist.com, one through usedvancouver.ca and one through piratebay.org. Through UBC bookstore, the total of these texts would be $514.70 plus tax... My total comes to (drum roll) $311.49... including shipping and tax AND one textbook that's for next semester! Not bad, eh?

This lead me to think about learning styles. I started to procrastinate and look up research regarding different learning styles. What I found was a very controversial topic. What I've mostly heard before hand was information regarding the VAP (visual, audio and physical) style. Most of the studies I looked up seemed to state that there is no evidence proving people are a particular type. So what then?
Know thyself and maximize your possibilities! Whenever I talk to people in regards to healthy eating and/or working out, they always ask me what I think is the best method. I usually respond with "the method you actually do." The truth is doing something that is more efficient will only help you so much if you rarely ever do it. Also, even if one method helps you to learn better, doesn't mean the others can't help you learn even more. Mix it up then!
Read, take notes, do problem sets, ask questions, and discuss things with your professor, TA and peers. Get an overall understanding with enough ability that you could teach someone else. If you do this, no matter what, you will do well!


While writing this I listened to NIN's album Year Zero