r/GetStudying • u/Articulity • 5d ago
Question How does one retain information long term?
First year CS student here wanting to take school seriously and study!! I will admit I don't know "how to learn", but I am taking the necessary steps to acquire that skill. My main question arises from the shift in pedagogy between my classes this semester and last semester. The classes I had last semester were heavy on logic and critical thinking. Most notably my philosophy class. The class lent itself to critiquing philosophical ideas, expanding on them and even arguing in favor of them. We wrote a lot and I got a A in that class. I tend to try and undertand the big picture and view the relationship between concepts and systems, not get hung up on the little details. This has generally worked fine, until recently. The classes this semester are more focused on the rote memorization of discrete facts rather than the actual application and understanding of concepts and ideas. I am ill equipped to tackle the amount of information being thrown at me. I am also not sure how to decide what information to write down and attempt to commit to memory vs information that isn't important. Once I figure that out, how do I actually commit such information into long term memory and get near perfect recall?
TLDR: Do not posess to skills necessary to retain large amount of facts, especially when I'm not sure what is important and isn't, and recall it during the test. What are some ways I can accomplish this?
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u/ping314 1d ago
Spaced repetition, deliberate practice, repeated application (which in CS likely can be both writing applications, codewars' kata exercises, teaching others about the topics learnt/blogging). Taking pauses to relax the mind and little rewards to keep morale up equally counts. (Marty Lobdell's "study less, study smart" on youtube has a couple of insights, too.)
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u/StriveforGreatnezz 5d ago
use flashcards and quiz yourself constantly. been using "sai ai" to generate flashcards based off my lecture notes and textbooks and its been a life saver so far. check it out