Imagine this scenario: You are laying in bed. All of a sudden you remember, “Oh right, I have a quiz tomorrow. I should probably study.” You then go to try and study. You do some flashcards, maybe quickly skim through some of the reading.

Did you really study or did you just memorize something only for the purpose of the quiz? Are you really learning? Or are you just doing this so your parents do not get mad at you for having a bad grade, or even doing it so your friends don’t make fun of you?

Maybe you did understand it, maybe you just memorized what you needed, that depends on the person. However, learning and memorizing are two different things that have appropriate times to be utilized as a tool for your brain.

Learning

When you are learning, your brain is trying to comprehend the knowledge being given to you. Learning allows one to have a more profound understanding of the subject you are being taught.

This is important because if you are learning something, then you want to understand it most of the time.

Learning is best used for ideas and topics you will most likely need long term. Even though it is generally better to try to thoroughly learn everything you need to, it is just too unrealistic.

Because of that, generally speaking, it is better to try to fully learn things you will need for the rest of your life

Let us go back to that first scenario. In that situation, learning would be ideal but is not possible. That is the disadvantage of learning; it takes time. Complete comprehension of something takes time. When you need to study for a quiz and you have less than 24 hours, time is not on your side.

Unfortunately this is just how it is, and most would agree. A student who wishes to remain anonymous says, “I would say about 80% of the time it is just memorization instead of actual learning, and [I] only receive about 20% of proper education.”

Memorizing

When you are memorizing something, you are just, well, putting information into your memory. But is that not what learning is? Well yes, but when we are talking about memorization here, we are referring to just trying to memorize very shallow concepts about subjects and information. It is mainly just referring to what you might need on that upcoming quiz.

Memorizing is best used in any situation when you need to quiz. Most quizzes are designed in such a way that all you have to do is memorize some specific things for specific questions. Memorizing is a lot easier than learning because of how little time it takes to memorize.

Memorizing is great for quizzing and testing, but it is not good for your brain. Because you are not fully comprehending and understanding, you will most likely forget it after the class. You are not learning the “why” and the “how”; instead you are only learning the “what”. 

This is not very good as you are not really taking anything from the class. A student even went on record to say, “Honestly, I am just memorizing the facts for the quiz. I use Quizlet Plus, and it helps me get good grades, but I don’t take anything away from the course other than what I have memorized”.

Why?

But it all comes down to the question: why? Why do we feel that memorization is necessary, like in the example at the beginning? This is all because of one thing: quizzes and tests. Quizzes and tests are not inherently a bad thing. How they are handled however, now that’s bad. 

Quizzes and tests are to, well, test your knowledge on a subject or topic. Most classes use a standard multiple choice format for their quizzes and tests. They maybe throw in a few short questions at the end with a long response. 

The problem with this is that multiple choice questions are usually pretty basic questions that usually do not require much thinking. But you need to get those questions right. Why? Because otherwise you will not have a good grade.

A student who wishes to remain anonymous even said, “When I study, I mainly just memorize things I need to know so I can do well on the upcoming quiz.”

Grades

This is ultimately what this all boils down to. Grades (and also one other thing which will be important later). Most people are stressed and worried about their grades, for good reason too. If you do not have a good enough grade, you might not get into the best college (that is if you plan on going to college). There are also  many other reasons.

“Teaching to the test” is an academic strategy that most educators use. The strategy involves heavily teaching what is on the curriculum in order to prepare students for standardized tests that they will have to take. This strategy is great for what it does, however, it takes away a lot from the learning experience.

I would say that most would agree that their grades are one of, if not the most, important things in their life as a high school student. They are the cause of pride, stress, anxiety, and happiness all at the same time.

Teacher & Class

Like most things in life, how well you learn something unfortunately depends on circumstances. For example, the teacher you have for a certain class may teach in a way that promotes actual learning rather than memorization, or vice versa. The class you have also depends on how well you learn, whether it is math, science, english, history, etc. 

For most classes, students are mostly memorizing events or how to solve certain equations, not often going into the “why”. Sometimes they do, but it is selective. However, the teacher also impacts this. you. could either have a teacher who goes the extra mile to go in depth into the “why” and “how”. Or, you could have a teacher who barely teaches much at all besides what is necessary.

A student says, “I feel like it depends on the teacher, because some teachers are really passionate about teaching and making sure you understand the subject rather than just memorize it. Not to comment on how they do their job at all, that is just how I have interpreted what and who I have been taught over the years. Some teachers do more, some do less. It really is a gamble.”

Why does this matter?

This all matters because, at the end of the day, education is one of the most important things. How well educated you are determines how well you can make judgment, or even work with something.

Because of how important memorizing or learning certain material is, it is crucial to make the right decision that you believe would benefit YOU the most. Learning and memorization are very different tactics for your brain that definitely affect how well your brain works.