retention of information...

So I've been thinking about the various courses that I took throughout my life, what I've retained and what I haven't retained in my studies.

One thing that still shocks me is that I haven't forgotten much from ICS4M, even though I took that course more than 3 years ago. I guess the reason is that the ideas from that course continues to come up in various other stiuations. Another reason may be that the subject is rather... intuitive. Data structures made sense to me back then, and I had found applications of it in programming and so on. On the other hand, sorts and searches don't make as much sense, and it's more of memorization, so I don't think I could recall as much about that.

PROMYS material I know I didn't really internalize at all... but I guess when you're being exposed to math math math all week long, some of it just diffuses into your system. A lot of things that came up later on became intuitive, and I think it helps when I'm trying to grasp all the abstractions. I should re-learn all the material, though >_> ...

Most of the Chem, Bio and Physics stuff I've conveniently forgotten. I guess it's just that I don't see that stuff so often now. But it's been in my system once, so I'm sure that if I ever need to calculate the concentration of some solvent, or model cellular respiration, I'd know how to do the research to look for the answer.

More surprisingly, I barely remember anything from Algebra from last term. Well, it was two terms ago, actually. I was looking at the notes, and I don't even recall doing these stuff... I'm not just talking about not remembering how to prove the results, I don't recall that I ever knew about the results in the first place. I guess I took the course the wrong way, and that Algebra is really intended to be taken in slowly.... and not just memorized. Still, it's quite surprising considering how well I did in the class...

Let's see... I recall most of the stuff from P, because it's pure logic. FM stuff... some of the things I know I can derive (like the formulas, etc), but there are certain things that I know full well I've forgotten. I still remember what a call and put was, but I don't remember anything on duration and convexity, other than knowing that... well, such techniques exist >_>. (Yes, I memorized)

Calc 1 stuff: some I still recall, some I don't. I can't really think of anything interesting to say.

Moral of the story: memorizing just doesn't work. It has to make sense... and not just at the moment. But I'm sure this isn't anything new.

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