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I don’t think learning something and forgetting it should really be justified, it’s just not an efficient use of time. If you wanted the benefit of knowing too

I don’t think learning something and forgetting it should really be justified, it’s just not an efficient use of time. If you wanted the benefit of knowing tools that help with linear algebra, memorize that, there’s not point cramming the entire thing just for a class. I think a good remedy to this issue is spaced repetition software like Anki/SuperMemo. It’s a bit messy to use with math, especially with something like a proof, and they’re meant for cards that shouldn’t take you longer than say 10 seconds to solve. It is doable though if you can break things down into atomic components. And it can be worth more than you realize to have usable access to those memories for say decades rather than till the month after your class I think it’s difficult though to make classes focus on such long-term memories because tests create such poor short-term incentive structures which aren’t easily replaceable. I think the only way to get around this is to just focus on learning what you want and if you’re missing something that seems useful to acquire it on your own rather than being required to study something and just forgetting it as soon as the test passes.

sjy 7y ago
I've also found Anki a good remedy to the "I feel bad that I don't remember this from undergrad" problem. I'm still nowhere near as fast at actually doing maths as when I was taking or teaching it. But now when some basic, relevant mathematical fact comes up in life and I've forgotten it, it just means there's one more thing I need to put into Anki, not that my mathematical knowledge is on a steady, irreversible downtrend.
- rajlego 7y ago
  Likely unwanted commentary but how do you do leech handling/minimum information principle with your math cards? I'm a SuperMemo user and I think one of the biggest failures I see with Anki, in general, is that it doesn't handle leeches well (leeches are cards you repeatedly fail that end up taking most of your time) and failure to adhere to minimum information principle (only 1 thing to recall per card). I think with math this would become even more difficult if you make minute long cards to go over some proof you will definitely be setting yourself up to suffer.
  - sjy 7y ago
    I'm only one year into using Anki and to be honest mathematics hasn't been a huge focus for me, so I'm not a great person to ask. Have you read this article by Michael Nielsen? http://cognitivemedium.com/srs-mathematics http://cognitivemedium.com/srs-mathematics I've noticed that I spend a lot of time on leeches and sometimes I go back to break them down into smaller pieces, but I haven't found it to be a major problem. How does SuperMemo handle it?

sjy 7y ago

I've also found Anki a good remedy to the "I feel bad that I don't remember this from undergrad" problem. I'm still nowhere near as fast at actually doing maths as when I was taking or teaching it. But now when some basic, relevant mathematical fact comes up in life and I've forgotten it, it just means there's one more thing I need to put into Anki, not that my mathematical knowledge is on a steady, irreversible downtrend.

rajlego 7y ago
Likely unwanted commentary but how do you do leech handling/minimum information principle with your math cards? I'm a SuperMemo user and I think one of the biggest failures I see with Anki, in general, is that it doesn't handle leeches well (leeches are cards you repeatedly fail that end up taking most of your time) and failure to adhere to minimum information principle (only 1 thing to recall per card). I think with math this would become even more difficult if you make minute long cards to go over some proof you will definitely be setting yourself up to suffer.
- sjy 7y ago
  I'm only one year into using Anki and to be honest mathematics hasn't been a huge focus for me, so I'm not a great person to ask. Have you read this article by Michael Nielsen? http://cognitivemedium.com/srs-mathematics http://cognitivemedium.com/srs-mathematics I've noticed that I spend a lot of time on leeches and sometimes I go back to break them down into smaller pieces, but I haven't found it to be a major problem. How does SuperMemo handle it?