Retaining Knowledge Over the Summer

Remember those summer math and reading packets from your childhood? Well, there might be a little truth in those.

American students tend to lose 36-50% of school knowledge while on Summer break. Much of this is replaced with warmer weather, jobs, being with others and a myriad of other reasons relating to the season. If we are not enrolled in summer classes, our minds and goals are set towards having fun and relaxing, not being the most academic.

So, how do you retain knowledge while going about sunny-day activities? You can do a lot actually, especially if you have “scholarly” interests that are not in the realm of normal academics. This sort of learning is easy as it is at your own pace and comfort level, but also is directly tailored to what you like. This could range from language to history or even math and science.

One reason to attempt to retain/continue learning over the summer is it better prepares you for the Fall semester. A lot of students put scholarly pursuits to the wayside when Summer starts. Also, most of what you learn in school can feel like it bogs you down with information. Thus it can take away time and energy learning about something outside of that realm. Even if you do want to continue learning more about your coursework, the Summer gives you more autonomy to fulfill those aspects instead of a planned out schedule that is important to follow.

A way to start this is to simply start reading. You can read anything, anywhere, anytime. It can be articles, research papers, books, magazines, online sources, etc. Just read what interests you. Fiction can still be informative as well. Enjoy what you read and how you read it. Try to learn about that one thing you have always wanted to read about but never had the time for. There are a multitude of things to read about which will help you keep information you might have lost otherwise. If you have trouble reading, you can find audio for free on YouTube or other streaming services. This option plays well into the next thing you can do.

An example of this: to push my boundaries of knowledge, I am reading something out of my normal realm of books: the Bhagavad Gita - Hindu history with some important theological/philosophical information from India.

Podcasts! Podcasts are becoming the biggest way people are becoming informed on really anything. Some of the biggest podcasters also have a variety of guests on covering different topics. Some of these include broad topics like personal health and current news. Others have more niche topics like military history or a specific music genre. A couple informative podcasts that are highly engaging are Popular Front who focuses on the geopolitical details of conflicts across the globe and Dan Carlin who goes in depth on historical events either not popularized anymore or need that level of depthness to fully cover them.

The final way to stay knowledgeable over Summer is to just look over old notes from previous classes. If you still have flashcards or other study material, go through and see what you remember. You can make a game with old study material. This is perfect if you have classes in the same subject and need to know certain formulas or topics. This does not need to become any kind of “academic” learning either. A couple times a week for a short period of time or just to jog your memory can still be beneficial.

To jog my memory, I looked through old math notes and challenged my knowledge. I was equally surprised to see what I remember and don’t remember!

Although this list is small, the purpose is to give a base of ideas on how to keep knowledge during the Summer when the responsibilities of schoolwork are not an issue. In no way does this mean you need to learn a whole semester’s worth of information if you are not enrolled in summer classes. Summer break is a highly celebrated time for everyone, and as stated above, you can find things that you enjoy that will help you stay focused on the course for Fall classes.

About the Author