Avi Kumar 16 - AP Tests and Memory
As I head into my final AP test tomorrow, AP Computer Science Principles, memory has never seemed more important in my entire life. These past two weeks have pretty much been the most I have ever studied in such a short amount of time, and it has completely changed my outlook on memory. After scavenging for the best ways to memorize facts that I’ll most likely never need to know ever again, I have come to have a new appreciation of how much of a profound role memory plays in my day to day school life. I would bet my life on the fact that my parents have never had to use the Lagrange Error Bound once they got their jobs, yet here I was not three days ago fighting to commit each and every one of the meaningless rules of the bond to my memory. I feel like I’ve stored a lot of meaningless information in my memory these past two weeks. When will I ever have to know that Henry Clay ran a corrupt bargain? When will I ever have to integrate a function on my way to work? Yet, I do understand and acknowledge that learning helps you grow as a person. Even if I never use these facts again, the very process of pushing myself so hard to retain, recall, and apply all of this knowledge has helped me grow as a person. Because of these last two weeks, I have been able to work hard under pressure, deal with stressful situations, and most of all I have learned how to learn. In a way, this dive into memory has made me realize that school is larger than the content we learn. Academically, I believe that the purpose of high school is to help people understand how to learn and sharpen their skills. Most of what I have crammed in these last two weeks I am probably going to forget, but I’ll never forget all the study methods I have tried to ensure that I will remember even the most obscure of facts.
Hello, Avi! When I was in eighth grade, I was invited as an honorary guest to a workshop in India which was inspired by the ancient study methods that the famous Indian scholar Aryabhata employed within his everyday life. Aryabhata, like you, recognized that most of the fundamental facts and skills of subjects such as mathematics and history are not regularly used frequently, which is the reason why our brains tend to forget them. Thus, he innovated a new way to remember facts faster: he made learning fun. When he had a class discussion in history class, he allegedly came up with physical objects that he mentally associated with numbers to recall effectively the years in which events happened. To study battles, he reenacted battles with accessible objects like pretending a rock was a general and sand was an army as he understood that the human brain is wired to remember things it registers as pleasurable. Indeed, I agree with you that school is not an institution created merely for academic achievement and acceleration; rather, it instills within our minds both values that assist in decision-making throughout our everyday lives and crafts the confidence that we need to thrive in the real world as adults. I was fascinated to read that you came up with many of the same conclusions that a prodigy did centuries ago, and hope that you will become one in whatever field you choose as well in the future!
ReplyDeleteHi Avi! I enjoyed reading your blog, and I definitely agree that memory is a huge part of our learning and growth. Similarly, I also agree that the concepts we often have to memorize and master throughout high school have no effect in the real world, and we’ll probably never apply them again. This concept is the very thing that often restrains me from “locking in” as I think about the limited impact such an insignificant concept is going to have on my life. Regardless, the study methods that we develop along the way make these concepts worth our time. Memory teaches us so many valuable lessons that are engraved in our minds forever, and I enjoyed reading your perspective on that. Overall, it was great to read your blog!
ReplyDeleteHi Avi! I really liked how you connected AP tests to memory and how memory plays a crucial role in determining how well we do on the tests, especially those that require lots of knowledge to have been crammed into the brain! I completely agree with this and could definitely relate to your experiences, whether that be wondering when I will ever use the Lagrange error bound again in my life and pondering the meaning of learning such a thing, or stressing over what I will be able to remember during the actual exam. Despite this, I have found that despite having many anxieties prior to my many exams, they almost always turned out to be okay. My memory fortunately did not fail me and I had mostly everything I needed to do well. From these experiences, I realized the many capabilities and importance of human memory and have now built up more confidence in regards to tasks that require memorization. I now know that even in stressful situations, I will still be able to survive, despite what my brain may tell me, and I am immensely grateful that I decided to take the risk of taking so many APs, in allowing me to not only learn more about various subjects in a more nuanced manner, but also in understanding that I am capable than I had ever realized!
ReplyDeleteHi Avi! I agree that school teaches us more than just the content. School, like you said, teaches us how to think and how to work and learn. The struggle of dissecting and understanding complicated subjects teaches us about ourselves. By watching ourselves learn, we understand our working habits, how to be most productive, and what our strengths and weaknesses are. AP classes being hard is just a way to help students push themselves. Now that AP tests are over, I am personally relieved that we are getting closer to the end of the school year. Overall, your blog was very interesting and I look forward to your next one.
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