We all go through school for education and would like to retain as much of the knowledge we are exposed to as possible.  Some of us wish we could go back and do better at learning in school.

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The goals of learning are to retain the information, to be able to explain the information to others, and to use the information in our daily life when needed.  The teachers we have can help by identifying which of the information we encounter we should try to learn.

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We can increase retention by reviewing the information 6-7 times or until we know it.  We can also help by using memory devices to remember information or incorporating the information into a story.  For example, the colors of the spectrum are recalled by the acronym ROY G BIV--Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo and Violet.

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In the end it is nice to get good grades in school but the actual learning is more important.  Focus on the learning and the grades will likely come.