Do you remember something?

@Takashy (496)
Latvia
January 23, 2010 9:43am CST
For everyone who's a student right now or has been one in the past. Do you actually remember all those things that you learned while you studied? Its just.. for some odd reason most of the things I learn or at last tried to learn usually disappear from my mind rather quickly.. And its not only the stuff that I have learned while being a student. That happens most of the time. I usually learn something for a test or a exam and than tend to forget basically everything or 95% of what I learned.. Sure I can remember some things but those are usually the ones I'm interested in or at last those that seemed interesting back that.. which aren't really that many. So I would like to know if its just like that for everyone or if its just me. Because I kinda feel like learning all those things and than passing those exams is kinda.. I don't know. Useless... Sure I will get a fancy paper that tells other people that I have graduated this or that but in reality none of the things that I "learned" will be used in the real life.. I most probably will have to re-learn all those things again simply because I forget them so quickly.. :/
1 person likes this
21 responses
@Jet3010 (32)
• United States
24 Jan 10
It's not that I remember everything exactly, but with a small refrsher everything usually can come back to me quickly as long as I learned it before. This is especially true with math when we return to old subjects to expand on them.
@glaiz_9 (366)
• Philippines
24 Jan 10
Honestly I don't remember most of them. Especially math formulas and definitions of this and that. A lot of people who graduated said that they didn't used what they learned in school. I'm not sure about comsci though. I think I would use most of the things taught to us.
1 person likes this
@alfroi635 (297)
• Philippines
24 Jan 10
Human's memory is unlimited.Only, all those things that you've learned will be forgotten in a certain period of time. But these things aren't really forgotten by you, it will just stay in your brain as long as you live. You can recall that whenever you are in a situation that really the same to your past. Some people say, details will just stay in the unconscious part of the brain. it just waits when will you awake it.
1 person likes this
@MrKennedy (1978)
24 Jan 10
I've forgotten nearly everything I have learnt at school, and as time passes, more and more stuff I was taught will slip out of my head. It's because most of the stuff we are taught at school is merely foundation stuff for further learning. Because I never took maths at higher education level (thank God), stuff like algebra has been irrelevant to me, and I've never needed it in the real world (I've never seen the point in algebra tbh).
1 person likes this
@wizteen (502)
• India
24 Jan 10
i am still a student. so there are many things we learnt in the past that were basics for what we learn now.so i remember such things. but this just holds good for subjects like maths and science. there are other subjects like literature and such. i dont remember all of them, i just remember a few moral stories and other rhymes that we learnt when we were 3feet tall. lol
1 person likes this
@shuyin101 (206)
• Philippines
24 Jan 10
I think we all attend school since everybody does and to have a decent job you must attend school but it doesn't mean that everything that we learn from school is important. BTW I think we have learned a lot of things in school more than what we think we did. I mean all those socializing, problems, analytical stuff and math and exams that gives us pressure. The school trains us more to be fit for the real life with all of those experiences trying to learn and remember those technical stuff, we are unconsciously being shaped to have a very strong character and personality. We unknowingly learn a lot of stuff in school that is beyond to what those books can offer.
1 person likes this
@banban (601)
• China
23 Jan 10
I bet no one are gonna remember all the things we learned from school. Even worse, we may forget it aftering exams! In my opinion, not all the things we learned from school are useful, so it doesn't matter if we remember it or not. Yeah, we do need to learn something at school, but the most important thing that we should learn is how to learn. Once we get trained on how to learn, no difficult things will bother us. It's just the time matters.
@Takashy (496)
• Latvia
23 Jan 10
True but it just feels kinda like I would be wasting my time at school because I won't know a whole lot more after I'm done with it. Its just that certain subjects at school are rather important (IT student) and I feel like I should actually know those things or at last some of them. Yet I can't remember anything that I learned last year and that had anything to do with my future job.. It simply feels like I would waste my time. Not to mention that once your done with school you get a paper that basically will tell other people how good or bad you were at certain subjects even if in reality you most probably don't remember anything about any of those subjects.. Which brings me to another topic.. the rating system.. Its just.. I'm fine with them rating our knowledge and all but I find it kinda funny and stupid at the same time. Mostly when you think about the fact that those numbers will most probably create your future.. ok it might not be that bad but still... Its simply funny when I think about how someone will just check those papers and see something like a 5 next to your XYZ subject and say that you weren't that good at subject XYZ and that your not qualified for the job.. :/ Ugh... :x
@Hatley (163781)
• Garden Grove, California
24 Jan 10
Takashy hi oh my yes we all forget a lot of what we learn in Colleg or University but we do need most of it just simply to 'round out our education. And you would be suprised that a lot of what we learned and thought we had forgotten will come back in times when we really need it. A broad education will stand anyone in good stead. For one thing a person with a broader vocabulary usually does very well in job interviews.
@ronnyb (6113)
• Jamaica
1 Feb 10
Well I have forgotten about sixty percent of what I have studied but the thing is that once I read it again I normally start to remember some of the things that Ilearned back then so I guess its a temporary memory loss.There have been things that I have studied for my exams but most of the thinsg I studied for was for a longer period and that is why I tried to learnt the principles
• United States
24 Jan 10
I Remember everything I have ever learned. Unless I forgot to memorize what I was supposed to remember. I think that I remember to not forget anything. Ask me anything that I know, and I will not forget it. Right?
1 person likes this
@niara25 (147)
• United States
23 Jan 10
It really depends on whether or not you're using what you've learned. Basically, how much it interests you. You can incorporate lots of things into your life without realizing it and thus, you remember it.
@Takashy (496)
• Latvia
23 Jan 10
Yea, but I doubt that I ever will really use any of the maths that I learn at the university.. unless I get a job that has something to do with programming and even that is unlikely to happen.. :/ I kinda get where you are going with that but its just weird. Why bother going through all that if you most probably will just learn all the things needed once you really need them in life? It simply looks like a odd system to me. For example,banban, said that we mainly learn how to learn. Its a good point but don't we already do that at the elementary school? Wouldn't it make it a lot easier if we just went straight away to work after that and than learned everything we needed there instead of spending a few more years at schools? The only reason why high schools/universities/etc. could be useful is to judge how good you really are or could be at a specific subject.. but still. Spending several years of your life only to figure out that your bad or good at something specific still seems like a big waste of time.. I'm not trying to say that universities/etc. are useless.. they must have been built for something. Its just that the whole thing seems rather odd to me.. :s
• India
23 Jan 10
Human brain has a limited capacity. It is impossible for anybody to remember all the things for ever. Old memories needs to be replaced by new ones. Again with advancing class, the course of study changes and becomes more difficult and vast. So, a student remembers that much which is necessary for the exams. And it is not essential that those things will remain in the mind for ever. I have already passed 12th standard for 8 years from now. I have secured 88 percentage in 12th board exam. Am i a bad student ? But now, i have not remembered even 10 percent of course of 12th standard. This happens to everybody.
@Takashy (496)
• Latvia
23 Jan 10
Yeah, I have heard that too. I kinda get it but it still feels kinda wrong to spend so much time "learning" only to forget it withing days or hours... heh.
@nexan29 (86)
• Philippines
25 Jan 10
Hello there. I remember some of the things that i have studied. Well,you will remember some of things that youve learn if you have a special interest on the subject. Just like me in my history class, some of trivias in our history were still on my mind. For those that they easily forget the things that they have studied in the past its okay.Because our mind cannot store all the things,but there some of the persons can remember almost of things, they has a good memory or they have a photograpic mind/memory.But there are things that you cannot forget.Just like counting numbers,writing a sentence, reading a paragraph.In all, we cannot forget some of the basic knowledge that we learned.Good day.!
@nexan29 (86)
• Philippines
25 Jan 10
Hello there. I remember some of the things that i have studied. Well,you will remember some of things that youve learn if you have a special interest on the subject. Just like me in my history class, some of trivias in our history were still on my mind. For those that they easily forget the things that they have studied in the past its okay.Because our mind cannot store all the things,but there some of the persons can remember almost of things, they has a good memory or they have a photograpic mind/memory.But there are things that you cannot forget.Just like counting numbers,writing a sentence, reading a paragraph.In all, we cannot forget some of the basic knowledge that we learned.Good day.!
@madteaparty (2748)
• Japan
24 Jan 10
Don't worry, that happens to many people. Usually for exams we need to remember too many things, so the only way is to just memorize. Unfortunately that method means that we will forget short after the exam everything that we learned
• Philippines
24 Jan 10
I only remember my lesson when their is an exam where their is a need to memorize after the exam is over i rarely remember it. Just like you i only remember those that appear interesting to me, especially if the teacher is admirable. I could recall the teacher face as well as his humor.
@vince06 (98)
• Philippines
24 Jan 10
some of the things that i have learned back when i was a student is still in my mind but some is already forgotten but to weigh it i think things that i did not forgot is more heavier than the things i forgot because i tend to remember those things cause i know it is very helpful in the future becuase in the first place why did our mentors tought us those things thatin the near future we cant use it...
• United States
24 Jan 10
Hello Takashy. First, I am glad I am not the only one. It bothers me that I have forgotten so much. I think I have only retained a few things and I a still in school. I watched a show the other day that compared young children's knowledge to older people's and was upset with myself that I knew very little. I never forget a life experience, but my mind chooses to forget the details that I am paying good money for. I think the things we remember are the things that we enjoy the most, but those are the things that rarely come up in conversation. It might be that we just need to refresh our memories occasionally to esnure that we are retaining what we have learned. Of course, that is an enormous task.
• United States
24 Jan 10
Hmmm. I should probably admit that I can somehow relate. I studied Japanese language in college, but ended up working in a market research firm --- totally unrelated for the most part. Trying to learn a new language was quite interesting, but after a year or so, I was not able to keep myself more interested to it than the usual. Now, since I work for a company with an English Only policy, I rarely get to use the language I studied from college. It's not that bad though. I can still remember some thing here and there and can keep up with my college buddies' Japanese word insertions during conversations, but if someone were to ask me to translate for them, I'd probably blank out. :D
• India
24 Jan 10
Dear Takashy, From your look you seems to be young. At this stage too much loss of memory is really a matter. But in your letter you admit that what you are interested really in, you remember fairly well. That means the subject you study now is of least interest to you. That is mainly why you are forgetting everything. Persons having diseases like Amnesia usually forget everything that happened in near future. But this particular disease usually affects aged persons, so far as I know. Try to concentrate in things which interest you. Do not get disheartened. This is not a disease. Consult a Psychiatrist to regain your confidence in life.