Kolb learning style test

Nine rows of four words. In each row, tap the words in order, starting with the one that fits you best. We hand out the 4 to 1 scores, add them up and show you your learning style. Nothing leaves your browser.

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Think about how you are most of the time, not how you would like to be. There are no right or wrong answers.

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How it works

David Kolb describes learning as a cycle with four stages: you have an experience, you reflect on it, you turn it into a general idea, and you try that idea out. Most people lean towards some stages more than others. The test measures how much you lean towards each one.

The four learning modes

CE · Concrete experience: You get personally involved. Feelings weigh more than analysis, and the situation in front of you matters more than general theories. You like being with people, trust your gut and do well when things are loosely structured.
RO · Reflective observation: You want to understand before you act. You watch carefully, look at things from several angles and care about causes and consequences. Patience, impartiality and careful judgement matter to you.
AC · Abstract conceptualization: You think in ideas and concepts, and you like logic. A rigorous theory beats a hunch, you plan systematically and you are at ease with symbols, models and numbers.
AE · Active experimentation: You want to step in and change things. Doing beats watching, and what counts is that it works. You value getting results.

How the scores add up

Each column of the questionnaire belongs to one learning mode, but not every row counts: in each column three words are only fillers and get dropped. You still rank the whole row, because a word's score depends on where you put the others. Each total ends up between 6 and 24.

Learning mode	Position in the row	Rows dropped
Concrete experience (CE)	1	1, 6, 9
Reflective observation (RO)	2	2, 4, 5
Abstract conceptualization (AC)	3	1, 6, 7
Active experimentation (AE)	4	2, 4, 5

Then come two differences. The horizontal axis, AE − RO, tells whether you prefer doing (positive) or watching (negative). The vertical axis, AC − CE, tells whether you prefer thinking in concepts (positive) or starting from experience (negative). The resulting point lands in one of four quadrants, and each quadrant is a learning style.

The closer the point is to the centre, the more balanced your style: you have a favourite way of learning but happily use the others too. The further out, the more you rely on just one. No style is better than another: what matters is picking the right one for the situation.

The questionnaire is Kolb's Learning Style Inventory (1976). It is a prompt for self-reflection, not a diagnosis.