Anyone else forget all the stuff they learned in school?

3 years out of university and in IB since graduating - I swear I'm getting dumber (at least from an academic standpoint) despite being a top bucket A2A. Cant answer simple grade 12 calculus problems, and even concepts from courses such as financial economics I can barely remember (although the latter comes back pretty quickly given relevant to work in some respects). Goes to show how intellectually challenging the job actually is.

Anyone else in the same boat or do I have some type of memory loss that I should get checked?

11 Comments
 

Yes, I’m still in college but I’ve forgotten most of the stuff I’ve learned in calculus. Also don’t remember a lot of the stuff I learned in some of my earlier college courses. Honestly, it’s not very relevant and I don’t use those concepts everyday so not surprised I’ve forgotten that stuff. 

 
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One of the most incredible things I find about really really incredibly smart people is their memory. If you gave me a calc 2 exam I would likely fail having forgot everything already a couple years later as a math major, but some of my smartest peers, like the really smart ones, their memory is insane, or rather, their ability to maintain perception and understanding of information for long periods of time is insane. I go to HYPS and while 95% of my peers are just like me, the smartest ones are freakishly good at remembering class stuff. Their ability to just understand topics which they are unfamiliar with is amazing. Another example of this is my dad. He's an engineering prof at an ivy and throughout HS and college, he's been able to tutor me about math, chem, and physics topics he hasn't covered in 20-25 years throughout high school and college. I'm a math major and I'm not sure I'll be able to take a derivative in 10 years, let alone remember advanced topics 25 years down the line. It really makes me feel dumb comparing myself to my smartest peers. I don't think we are actually truly dumb, but rather like 95% of college students we never put in the effort to truly learn stuff instead of memorize it, like the top 5% did. I'm graduating summa cum laude this spring so top 0.5% is probably more accurate but yeah.

 

Well, I’m no where near as smart as you but I agree haha. With a bit of studying I could probably get back up to speed, but there is no way I’d pass a calc exam if you put one in front of me right now. But like you said, we probably just don’t put in the effort required to really learn but rather just enough to pass.

 

Yes, this happens to just about everyone. Also, I think that this is reason why later education like MBAs and CFAs are more useful than most people realize.  Work a few years....refresh with a MBA....work a few years and refresh with CFA Level I...work some more then do Level II and III. You'll find yourself much more knowledgeable than 90% of your peers as your allowing yourself to refresh on a regular basis.

 

That’s a good way to approach it. I’m trying to get into the swing for L1 and it’s nice seeing some things I learned in college awhile ago.

Quant (ˈkwänt) n: An expert, someone who knows more and more about less and less until they know everything about nothing.
 

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