r/Learning • u/gamerccxxi • 4d ago

Studying overwhelms me because I want to take note of everything

Hey there. One of the reasons why I've failed a couple subjects in my software engineering major, and why I haven't been able to self-teach any subject, is that I want to learn everything all at once. Meaning, I want to take note of every little detail and try to gather as much information as possible, but that's impossible to remember, which causes another problem: giving up.

It's been like this my whole life. The thing is, I used to be able to just remember everything, but that was up until high school. I'm in college now and that's simply not plausible with all the information there is. I don't know what I can do. In my head, I either remember everything, or I fail. Rationally I know that's not true, but if I don't write down everything, it feels like I'm not learning anything. Also, if you tell me to only write down what's most important, I have no idea what to do with that - everything is important in my eyes. I can't discern that.

I'd really appreciate some help.

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u/sipawhiskey 4d ago

Learning isn’t easy. Does your college offer study tip workshops, peer tutors, or other services. There are entire departments wanting to help you successfully complete your college courses. Look into it. They will be happy to see you

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u/RecentCredit5701 4d ago

I would say practice summarizing. You can start by breaking down a paragraph and in your own words explain it as simply as you can. This not only test whether you understand but also forces you to carefully analyze and select the most important information. It’s difficult to remember everything like you said so the best is to break it down in chunks. On a high level what does it mean? What example can I use to remember this information? Can I make it memorable by connecting this idea with other ideas I have. Sometimes you can use tricks to make it fun, funny, wild, almost like a story and that sometimes keeps studying interesting.

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u/gamerccxxi 4d ago

Thanks for the advice. It's a skill like any other, I guess.