What actually fixed your inability to retain what you studied?
I’m struggling with retention and I’m trying to figure out whether my study method is the problem or if this is something that improves with practice.
My biggest issue is that I can understand a topic while studying it and feel like I know it, but when I come back to it a few days later, a lot of it feels unfamiliar again. I can usually follow solved examples, but when I’m given an unfamiliar question, I struggle to figure out how to approach it.
It’s especially frustrating because sometimes I spend hours studying something, feel confident that I understood it, and then realize during revision that I barely remember the details.
For people who used to have this problem and actually fixed it:
What specifically changed things for you?
Was it active recall, spaced repetition, solving more questions, revising differently, teaching the material, making shorter notes, changing how often you revised, or something else?
I’m not expecting generic advice like “study harder” or “revise more.” I’d love to hear what your problem was, what you changed and how long it took before you noticed a difference.