How much information can your retain after you finish school?

Still have most of it except things that need to solve with formulas. I am not formulas fan so I forgot almost of it. But I am sure it is still there somewhere, I just need to go through the lesson for one more time, I am sure I will get back my memory but have no guarantee I will remember it after I am done with it. Most of the information we retain come from how often we use it. If we don't use the info at all we will likely tend to forget it.(^^)

Since I was an IB student, I can say most of the things I learnt at school were truly meaningful, that I retained them forever, just like how to add read. they taught me skills rather than loads of useless data, which I think should be the aim of education everywhere.

hi there, i admit that i can't remember most of my lessons from school even in high school and college, but i need to study and ready from time to time. my profession needs continuous study... your discussion kind of reminds me to read more hehe

what you learn in school gives you the basics to be able to learn more in life.It also depends where you go to school.I was lucky that in my country of origin , we had a very comprehensive education,we learned the basics in a lot of domains ,so we got a very good general education.After high school we went on to university to learn the specifics of our chosen profession. But since our curriculum included so many different subjects,it opened my interests,so \I continued reading about it and so I expanded my knowledge.I think that is up to each individual to continue to educate themselves.

I don't remember whole knowledge that i studied but right now, whenever i want to get use it i know where to read it again, and know to do research by myself. On the other hand, it is a skill to use knowledge for the real application in my major. i think it is better than just learn by heart and then can use knowledge studied to major works.

It feels like such a waste of time that I had to learn many things I don't remember and will never use later in my life. But I think the basics at least are still there. I just found a test and I was relieved that I was able to answer some questions in chemistry and biology... it's been ten or fifteen years when I learned them.

You are not alone in imagining that you must retain everything you learn in school! Actually, education is not so much about the retention of knowledge, as it is about exercising, and opening the mind, to increase brain capacity,so that you will be able to learn where, and how to source the knowledge required in the work and play world of everyday life! Remember that over a lifetime, much of what you learn in school will become redundant!

I think it is easy to remember the things that we use everyday like reading, writing and math, but some of the other things are harder to retain. I learned the Danish grammar many years ago, but I still remember everything, because I use it whenever I write Danish. In my everyday life I also use basic math for instanse when I make a budget. I have forgotten a lot of the other things that I learned in the math lessons because I haven't used them for 20 years. I remember the things that I learned in the English lessons, and I use them whenever I write English (almost every day) I am able to understand German and I used to be good at writing German as well, but I haven't written German for about 15 years and it is not easy for me to write German today. I haven't used French for 15 years. I am still able to understand some easy sentences in French, but I can't write French anymore.

In due time, you will learn how much you learned from school, but obviously the answer would be a lot and it is subconsciously still held on you memory bank and you just have to dig a little bit, lol! A sound advice would be to study on your own, i.e. read a book, read a blog, read discussions here, etc. Learning should be a continuous process as it would surely advance your fund of knowledge about life and everything.

First thing I did was try to find out which country you are from. (Put it in your profile please!) Why? Because quite honestly, a lot of countries around the world have poor education systems but a thriving business in fake diplomas and degrees. Those who have studied correctly at school do remember most of what they learned. It might not come into your head immediately, but it's buried there somewhere! What you were bad at (French in my case) generally means you will always be bad at that subject, so no, we don't retain everything. But there is no excuse not to remember fifth grade stuff - well unless you didn't make it to the fifth grade!

You retain what you consider the most important. For example, if you like a specific history subject and had a teacher that could teach it correctly you'll remember until you die. On the other hand, if you hate a subject, you'll just study it and dump what you learned by studying in the test and forget it.

We will remember what is interesting to us. But also we will remember the rest somewhere stored. Sometimes we can reach for it, other times we can not or only if we get sick or there is something that triggers that experience, knowledge, memory of a long time ago. Also many things we learn will become a kind of habit, this way it's not really about "remembering" anymore or storing the info in our memory. Personally I don't believe our memory can store for ever.

Hi! I think what we should retain after we finish school is CRITICIZING and thinking power!! We study different subjects in our schools. But I think having much knowledge is not the matter, what the important is to be criticizing. If we can criticizing well,we can get success in every field. Nowadays there are millions of things we have to memorize.Then only knowledge is not the power..I live in a developing country. In my country, what I have to face is even those got phd cannot criticize and cannot do brain storming so well although they know much about their subject!! Then we cannot gain the real success in life..

I think the facts and formulas you learn are forgotten but the skills aren't. Problem solving, reading and writing fluency, the list goes on and on. I've known many people, those that went to college tend to hold better conversations and be more informed, even though they might not remember anything from their calc 3 class.

To be honest, Not a whole lot. Some stuff we need to learn in high school like basic algebra and English is pretty important but the rest is a complete waste of time and effort. Never have to use it in real life after I left high school