<p>Hey guys, do any of you have trouble retaining information? Or if you don’t, care to share your secret? I guess I’m more of a concept guy, so when I study something and am asked about it a month or two later, I’m terrible at explaining it. This goes for books too. Say I read a book that I thought was fascinating last year(example: The Elegant Universe) and tried to tell somebody how great it was today, I would have trouble saying anything more than “It’s about atoms and Unified Field Theory and stuff…” Partly it might be because I didn’t really look into the information of the book since then, but there’s got to be a way to retain more of that information.</p>
<p>My retention is quite strange. I can read over a book or something I find interesting yet I wouldn’t be able to explain it to someone else if they asked because I wouldn’t remember it in enough detail. However, when a mental prompt, such as a question in class, is given, I can instantly recall what I read and answer the question. This even works for me with material I’ve encountered maybe 5 years ago.</p>