Ah, statistics. My wife, now an actuary, graduated magna cum laude in 3 years with math and CS double major. She got an A- in stats. I got an A. Beat her at her own game. The only class where I did better than her, but I still tease her about it.
My future husband and I took Prestressed Concrete Design together in grad school. I was in my partying mode back then, so I got off to a slow start - made a C on the first exam. Future DH was so concerned that he was about to speak to my parents, lol. Then I went into high gear and aced the rest of the exams. I got an A in the course and he got an A-. I don’t let him forget that!
There are people I’ve worked with who claimed they had degrees in my field. They were, however, so ignorant of the knowledge of the field, that I’ve wondered whether they truthfully had the degree.
It is possible to learn stuff for tests and give yourself “permission” to let go of it afterward. And then you do. This allows you to uptake new information with less “baggage” in your brain.
I went for a degree in chemistry at the age of 31 after doing various mundane jobs at little more than the minimum wage. I regarded it and still regard it as a VERY precious opportunity. Among other things I wanted to know how the universe works. I told myself at the time that I must remember all that I learn. Twenty-nine years after my graduation I am retired. I got a new edition of my physics textbook. It took me a few minutes to reorient to it, but I found that I did remember all of it.
Someone might make the case that I would have been better off letting the material go, but it gives me great satisfaction to know that I haven’t.
So when you go about your studies, I suggest that you decide in advance how long you shall keep the information. This decision makes a lot of difference.
But don’t worry, you are not the only one who forgot frosh (or high school) calculus. At least one person rederived part of it, published a paper on it, and got a bunch of citations:
http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/17/2/152.abstract
In terms of physics, consider why it can be so difficult to loosen the lug nuts on the car wheel when you have a flat tire, and why standing on the end of the lug wrench can help.
I thought DH with his Physics PhD should have no problem helping DS with AP Calc BC. But, a lot of his answers to questions are along the lines of: “Oh, that part is not so important or useful” or “We just look that up on Wolfram Alpha now” or “Once you can do it, you don’t worry about proofs anymore.” He was really helpful with AP Physics B, however.
I only went through Multivariable Calc and don’t remember much beyond the simplest differentiation and integration in Calc 1. (I remember asymptote, because that’s kinda fun to say,) But I had an easier time coaching elementary and middle school level math competitions than DH. I was better at logic problems, geometry proofs, and probability/combinatorics stuff than DH, I guess. And, a lot of that stuff you can figure out rather than having to remember.
Also, I’ve been able to help DS occasionally with programming/hacking things or at least understand what he’s brainstorming aloud about. Nice to be able to impress my kid with mom’s Linux knowledge. So, I’m kinda proud of that considering I was a Journalism major (but took ~4 programming classes at a CC to be a better technical writer).
I still remember a fair bit of geology from college, because that’s fun to think about on hikes and national park vacations.
Just when I thought I “forgot everything” Jeopardy has a category about something I studied.
And then BOOM…right there in my living room all those seminars on early Renaissance Italian Paleography pay off.
“I’ll take the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili for $2000 Alex!”
Wasted time? I think not, my friend.
One of the reasons I can do calculus and could help my three kids is that my company is super cheap and I end up doing a lot of math by hand. Want to know the predicted efficiency of a wireless charger built into the sole of a shoe while the person is running on a treadmill? I had to do it on paper.
I think novelty is easier to remember. I recall bits of courses on Buddhism and Meso-American Civilizations, not so much of Psych 101.
But haven’t you ever been curious how quickly the airplane you’re flying in was accelerating or decelerating at some point, and whether what you’re perceiving has any relationship to reality? Use the in-flight internet, take a few points over time from FlightAware or some such site (or, maybe easier if you’ve got a speed reading on the in-flight video, take that periodically to get velocity over time), figure out a rough estimate for a curve of position over time, and then it’s just a couple of derivations and you’ve got an acceleration curve!
Oh. That’s just me, is it? Well, I guess I’ll just go back over to the nerd corner and take a nap, then…
Oh—and apropos of a few comments upthread, xkcd has a relevant comic strip, because xkcd always has a relevant comic strip: https://xkcd.com/451/
Absolutely!! As a student of literature, history, political science and art history, I recall all those classes and recall discussions and readings. I still have the majority of the books from those classes and I graduated many moons ago. All you need to do is visit an art museum or read about this week’s art auctions and anything you have learned about Picasso, Giacometti, Rothko, Lichtenstein will be in your mind. I only wish that my schedule would have allowed time to audit or take a music history class. One of my goals in retirement is to understand more about classical music.
Did it ever occur to you that your father is giving you a line so he doesn’t have to help you with your homework?
Or that he may actually have forgotten, which at his age would be somewhat alarming?
I never had a need to remember anything I learned in Calculus, yet while I took the classes, I knew I was training my brain to think more clearly, more focused, and it certainly helped me develop discipline. I always did my college Calculus homework first, because it cleared my mind, and when I went to write my papers for Poli Sci, and English, or prepared for speech competitions, my work was always better thanks to the effect of the math on my brain. I truly believe that. Probably one reason I eventually ended up studying Linguistics - a combo of the creative and the analytical.
Now, as I have homeschooled my kids, and taught all the math, I do have to pull out the Calculus textbooks to remind myself, but it has come back to me. The only issues I have had with my kids is that they don’t care for my methods of teaching them, which differs quite a lot from their public school teachers they had before we returned to homeschooling. I like to pull out the old hardback textbooks, and lots of scratch paper, and lots of pencils, and I don’t allow calculators. I never had a graphing calculator at my disposal in my college level Calculus classes and I see no reason to let my kids use them for high school level math. And I always make them walk through all the steps of thinking and I never give them the answers. I enjoyed math, but especially with the higher maths, I always felt the pain of math in my brain - a very physical sensation it seemed as I worked on problems - and I expect my kids to feel that kind of mental pain, too - it’s good for them.
My husband is a math prodigy who dreams of math still to this day, and sees the world in numbers all the time, even though he does not get to use his math in his daily life in computer engineering. But even though he has such a ready recollection of all the concepts and would be the better one to help with the math homework, one would think, the problem is that he went so far into advanced math that it does take him longer to remember some of the small stuff - at least to explain it and teach it. Doesn’t mean he cannot do the math anymore. He just works the math automatically and never thinks in terms of all the tiny steps. He is the one gifted with math skills, far better in math than I will ever be, but I don’t think he ought to ever be a math teacher. To teach math requires a special set of skills that many people who live in the math clouds just do not have (and don’t want to have anyway.)
My husband was an engineering major, and remembers a lot of Physics and Calculus. He was able to help my daughter a bit with both subjects this year.
However, he is also a hobby astronomer and really into that; and he is an attorney now and mainly works on computer/digital patents. So, he’s never been away from science and math much.
As for myself, I studied literature and French. I went to Paris two years ago, after not having been for twenty, and realized I didn’t remember much French! But I signed up for DuoLingo and it all came back to me in a couple of days. By the time I made my trip, I was able to speak to people in French (albeit haltingly, I’ve never been a fluent speaker).
As for literature, I do remember the gist of most of the theories and methods we learned, and of course, remember how to read and write, :D.
Very true, chesterton. I was very gifted in math and chemistry in college. However, math was extremely fun at all levels, but I loved chemistry and chose that as my major.
I tutored chemistry every year, but refused to tutor math students. Because it came so easily, I could not explain it to someone who “did not get it”. I did not have the tools to break it down simply enough so others could understand.
Do I remember any of it? Not at the higher levels, but I suspect I could get it back pretty quickly. I am also from the era of slide rules with no computers or calculators.
@coralbrook - Statistics was the bane of my existence in college! So much harder than what I thought it would be. I got a B but only with a tutor’s help! I do understand why it’s required for Humanities majors (and especially Social Sciences), but I have always been math-challenged. Thankfully, my daughter takes after her Dad…
I guess it depends what degree you get and then perhaps also what you do with that degree. I was an English and journalism double major. I knew NOTHING about journalism…how to write in a journalistic style, journalism history, etc., and I learned a ton in those areas during college. I also read a lot of classic novels and other writings that I’ve kept with me since. In some non-major classes, Art History and some psychology classes were valuable and provided information I remember to this day. Never want to be pretentious with some art knowledge, but it’s pretty cool to walk into an art museum and recognize a painter’s painting from across the room.
Also, I suppose in some ways “what you learned in college” is all in how you view your time there. For most young people, it’s such a transitive time in their lives, and you can learn while there from fellow students, from professors on topics that aren’t related to the day’s lecture, from just living life as a young adult, etc.
So for me, in college I learned:
who the Yellow Kid was
that I like Steinbeck the most of celebrated American authors
what an inverted pyramid means in journalism
who John Locke was
that Calder made a lot of mobiles
that washing a brand new red t-shirt with white socks and white underwear gives you pink socks and pink underwear (until about 2 more washings)
and a lot of other things.
Personally I found math mostly easy in HS and whatever I took in college (3rd, 4th semester calc and more).
But after 30 years of working in a job where I don’t use much of that math, no I only remember what I need to
remember. I would go so far as to say I could have majored in Math if I wanted, but remember little of what
math I did learn as a Comp Eng/Comp Sci major. Not just math, I found college physics interesting and
was able to master it, but I just don’t remember much of anything.
You have so much on the job learning for whatever you end up doing after college, you are lucky
if you can absorb and retain what is directly relevant to your job, if you have a job that uses your brain.
Maybe if you flip burgers you can dream of a proof to keep your mind occupied, but I know I am not doing so.
I haven’t read all the replies and agree with those who say you lose what you don’t use. I earned a BS in math and knew trig & calculus cold. I considered physics an advanced math course – I didn’t really understand what I was doing, but if I approached every physics problem as a math problem, I could solve it. I got straight As in math & science in high school & graduated magna cum laude from a very selective LAC. I knew my stuff. That was then.
Now? I’ve worked in computer science for my 35+ year career. When my D entered high school, I told her I could probably help her through Algebra 2, but I wasn’t sure about anything beyond that. I assume that I would pick it up very quickly should I need to re-learn it, but I would definitely need to re-learn calculus. When I think about it, I’m kind of sad because I am aware of how much I have forgotten. But I have never needed it.
I have a pretty severe fear of flying. It doesn’t keep me from flying, though, so I just tend to be very anxious. On long flights, I prefer to convince myself that I’m just spending time in a narrow-ish room, reading and having a glass of wine or two, watching a movie, etc. I don’t want to know anything technical which would remind me that I am traveling through the air at hundreds of miles per hour, thousands and thousands of feet above land or water, in a narrow metal tube with fallible human beings piloting vulnerable mechanical systems.
Ugh, the whole idea gives me dyspepsia.
I remember most of what I learned in college and high school. I remember just about all of the math I took. I used an accounting principle I learned in my first accounting principles class (1976) just yesterday. I hadn’t thought about it since college, but it was still there.
At age 58, I earned an associates degree in computer science, just for fun to see if I could do it The interesting thing is that what I learned in that curriculum has quickly faded after just a year or two. So, I think when we are younger, the things we learn stay with us much longer than the things we learn when we are older.
Just an observation.