Rushil Week 14: How Fast We Forget Things
Oftentimes, students forget a lot of their material. For me, it mostly happens after exams or summer break. I always ignore this and review material once I need it again. However, I always fail to question why this happens. Most people would think it’s because we aren’t constantly drilling information in our minds or that we lack interest in the subject. Surprisingly, our study habits are the reason why we tend to forget topics so easily.
In this Quora thread, someone posed the question: “Is it normal to forget everything after an exam and the summer holidays?” Brandon Kaye, a student pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Biomedical Science and Neuroscience, gave an insightful response. He said that if topics were not embedded in one’s long-term memory, forgetfulness will appear more often than usual. He adds on, saying that “[cramming] before exams” rather than “[pushing] in your studies” embeds topics in one’s short-term memory. This may be common knowledge for some, but it’s surprising to figure out how many people don’t understand this concept.
Simple concepts such as writing notes while watching videos instead of simply watching them benefit studies are not understood by people. It took me years to realize this. For history, I used to follow Heimler’s History, a YouTube channel dedicated to AP history courses. I continually watched his videos, feeling as if I was absorbing the knowledge. It took one test for me to bomb when I realized that I never retained the information successfully. I then figured out that taking notes while watching videos was the way. Now, I’m not saying this is the way for everyone; everyone is different. I want people to understand that figuring out what works best for them, which often takes more time, will benefit them in the long run.
 |
| Image from Google |
Hi Rushil! I know exactly what you mean when you talk about how quickly we forget things. I feel as though I am almost notorious for not being able to remember things well after tests, and I always felt like it was an underlying issue because, during the test, I would be able to have such a thorough understanding, but the next day I couldn’t explain what one plus one means. But because my lack of memory was also present in my day-to-day life where I could not remember even the things that my friend tells me about her life and classes, I thought it wasn’t a big deal. In my psych class, we learned about proper studying methods and ways that we ingrain information into our long term memories, but nonetheless, I have always struggled with it. There are certain new methods that I have been trying this year that are helpful like trying to explain the information that I have learned to my cat whenever I have the opportunity, but as tests and classes are getting more difficult, it becomes more important to understand and be able to break down small, detailed pieces of information so I worry about long-term tests like the AP exams or finals. I don’t want to have a helpless mindset, but I must say I can’t help but be demoralized when I look back to right before a unit test and compare that confidence to the uneasy understanding when I have to take finals or exams.
ReplyDeleteRushil, I totally agree with your explanation on short-term memory compared to long-term memory. I still end up cramming information directly before a test. Right after the test, I forget everything I ever learned. This sucks because it ends up catching up to me when I have to relearn everything for final exams. However, when I do relearn it is a lot easier than learning the first time. Even if I forgot everything, it all comes rushing back so short-term memory is not useless in that matter. I think I need to start studying gradually for long-term memory. I believe the best studiers are people who focus on long-term memory rather than short-term. I've also seen tons of Tiktoks of people cramming days before the exams and still doing good. Of course this comes at the sacrifice of sleep and temporary happiness. Overall, your blog was very informational and useful for me.
ReplyDeleteHey Rushil, I found your blog on why we can forget things really quickly very insightful. I can relate heavily when you say that you often forget things after an exam, this usually happens to me after taking a vocabulary test. This phenomenon really hit me when I was taking my AP Environmental Science final last semester. Before the final, I have been acing every exam, so I didn't prepare that much for the final. It wasn't until I was taking the final that I had realized I had forgotten everything because when I studied for each test, I was usually cramming the night before and I would usually just watch the videos on AP classroom without taking any notes. Now, back then I didn't know that that was a pretty bad way of retaining information. It wasn't until in AP Psychology when we had our unit on memory that I learned about this concept. So, just like you I have started to take notes while I watch content. Overall, I enjoyed reading your blog and it helped me furthered my understanding of the concept of forgetting in the short term memory.
ReplyDeleteHi Rushil. I'm taking AP Psychology this year, and this reminded me of a unit that we did. It taught me what long-term memory was and the difference between long-term memory and short-term memory. That module also taught me how to store information in my long-term memory (I still don't use the information I learned to my advantage). Are you taking psychology, or are you planning to take psychology? If you are curious as to how the mind works, psychology is such a beneficial class. It is fascinating to know that all of the things I do, or that happen to me have a term and that so many other people also go through the same thing. My teacher had us do an assignment titled "How to Get the Most Out of Studying" and here is what I learned: There is what you call shallow processing and deep processing, and deep processing is what you want. You achieve deep processing by making the material personal, relating and comparing the concepts to other previously learned concepts, understanding how you will be asked to apply the information, and practicing retrieving the information. If you’re curious about what we watched, the video is titled “How to Get the Most Out of Studying” by Dr. Stephen L Chew. I hope that helped, thank you for writing.
ReplyDelete