College Courses and Retention

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by Maniac Craniac, Apr 25, 2010.

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  1. Maniac Craniac

    Maniac Craniac Moderator Staff Member

    I may be a rarity in the world, but as I go about my adventures in higher education, I would like not simply to earn a degree, but to retain and use the wealth of information that I receive, specifically from my major courses of study.

    I have been thinking about this a lot lately and want to see what some of you more experienced students and graduates have to say about this.

    Days, months, years after taking college courses, or taking proficiency exams for credit, how much of it do you actually remember?

    If the terminology escapes you (understandable!), do you still remember the concepts, the contexts, the message and the methods?

    Do you find a great variance in the amount you retain from B&M as opposed to DL as opposed to credit-by-examination?
     
  2. bazonkers

    bazonkers New Member

    I tested out of most of my classes for my BS. I remember some of what I learned (7 years later) but as with anything, if you don't use it, you lose it. Some of the business concepts that I studied aren't fresh anymore as I don't use them or refer to them. I'm now studying History and all of that is fresh in my mind as it's so recent. That said, if I don't keep studying historical topics after I finish, I'll forget some what I learned in my masters as well.
     
  3. cookderosa

    cookderosa Resident Chef

    My first degree was 20 years ago- I attended the Culinary Inst. of America and (at that time) the entire curriculum was what we would call "in major" with no gen eds. We had 7 day classes that went year round for 2 years. It was lightning fast and people dropped like flies. So, I can honestly say that I spent LESS TIME on many subjects then compared to the amt of study time I have spent on some CLEPs. I can say with honesty that I remember a lot-crazy amounts. Maybe that's because we had insane European chefs screaming at us 12 hours per day lol. Who knows? That said, culinary arts has been my field for all of those 20 years since I graduated, so not only have I been thinking about the material, but using it and teaching it. Had I simply graduated and then became a plumber, I don't think I'd have retained as much. So, my answer your question is simply "use it or lose it."
     
  4. joel66

    joel66 New Member

    I agree with the above responses. Summer of 2008 I took a 4 unit statistics class at the local college. It was by far the most intense course I have taken and three times the home work compared to my son's statistics course he took at a university. The following year I took operations management and forgot much of what I have learned, because I didn't use any of it in my other courses. Of course, I was able to remember some of it after I reviewed the topics, but again, I can't recall any of this stuff.

    This is one of the reasons why I'm kind of enjoying the CPCU material. There are eight exams and there is some overlap to all of the courses, so I am reinforcing a some of the material from the previous course. I am thinking this is one of the reasons why specializations like MS in (profession) would be advantageous if the courses overlap each other.
     
  5. SurfDoctor

    SurfDoctor Moderator

    Good question, Maniac. That's the whole point of going to school; to learn something. If you don't remember it later, what good has it done you?

    I'm finding that I retain a great deal of the material from many of the DL classes I have had. I think it's because I have written so many papers. It seems like you retain so much more of something when you are required to synthesize it into a project.

    I did my undergrad work many years ago and I can still remember some things I learned from writing papers. However, since my undergrad was B&M, it was highly test driven, and I can't remember a thing that was on those tests. There has been a lot of criticism of classes that present information and then merely require info regurgitation to pass. I think the criticism might be deserved.

    Never did a CLEP or similar, so I can't speak to that.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 25, 2010
  6. Ian Anderson

    Ian Anderson Active Member

    I have forgotton a large amount of what I've learned at school except for stuff I use on a regular basis. But when I need to use stuff I've forgotton I find I have no problem researching and understanding it.
     
  7. SurfDoctor

    SurfDoctor Moderator

    Didn't Einstein say that there was no point in remembering things that could be easily looked up in a book?
     
  8. edowave

    edowave Active Member

    Some research at Stanford looked at this.

    One study wanted to know if there was a difference in ability between MBA grads from top B-schoools vs. lower tier B-schools. Students in both groups were tested, and they found the students from the top B-schools did better.

    Three years after graduation, they tested both groups again, and found that there was no difference between the two groups.

    Five years after graduation, they tested both groups again. From the scores it looked like neither group ever did an MBA at all!
     
  9. AV8R

    AV8R Active Member

    Very interesting....can't say I'm surprised at all.
     
  10. SurfDoctor

    SurfDoctor Moderator

    What were we talking about? I can't remember.

    Joking aside, I agree that this finding is not surprising at all. It would be interesting to see a study that differentiated between information learned from test taking and information learned from synthesis. I wonder if I'm right about poorer retention from test taking.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 26, 2010
  11. Maniac Craniac

    Maniac Craniac Moderator Staff Member

    Depends on the individual, I'm sure. Several months after taking the Sociology and Spanish CLEPs, I remember almost everything from my studies, including which part of which book I got the information from. However, I know two Sociology majors and one person who took a community college class at the same time I was doing CLEP; whenever I quiz them, they look absolutely dumbfounded (one of them said, effectively 'Oh Yeah, Marx! I've heard of that guy!' :rolleyes:).

    Although individual variety is to be expected, I really want to know what the surveys and studies (if any have been done) say. Would I remember better if I wrote an essay? Would my ability to think in Sociological and Psychological terms be enhanced if I took less exams and more classes?

    Above all, I wonder if I should even worry about this. If I'm expected to forget all of this in five years anyway, then it makes no difference how I get my credits. If that's true, then it matters less what education I receive as opposed to what degree I receive. That would sting pretty sharply in the academic idealist section of my figurative heart.
     

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