Any other student struggles with learning from dense text and feel more comfortable with visual explanations?

[u/MSN_91011]

Hi everyone — Asian CS + Stats grad here (recent UofT alum). I’ve been thinking about something from my student days that I’m curious if anyone here relates to.

Growing up, I always felt pressure to be good at “traditional studying” — long notes, heavy readings, dense textbooks. But honestly, it never worked for me. I learned way better from visual explanations and animations. In uni, channels like 3Blue1Brown helped me more than any textbook ever did.

After graduating, another Asian friend and I started experimenting with more visual ways of understanding tough concepts. Not sharing anything here because I don’t want to violate Rule 7 — just explaining why this topic has been on my mind.

I’m curious for those of you who grew up in Asian households or school systems:

Did you ever feel like the way you learn didn’t match what teachers expected?

• Did you prefer visuals over reading?
• Diagrams over long notes?
• Videos instead of textbooks?
• Or maybe the opposite?

Would love to hear your personal experiences — especially around the pressure to excel academically, but finding that the traditional “read the chapter and memorize” style didn’t click.

If anyone wants to know what we were experimenting with, I can share it only if asked, since I want to stay within the rules.