Memorizing vs Learning.

There are basically different kinds of people in the planet. But majority of the people can be divided into two types of learners –

1.      Those who memorize and cram stuffs

2.      Those people who learn to understand

The people in the first category try to understand the underlying basic concept, while the latter merely try to cram up the facts and not really try and understand the concepts as they have no interest in recalling the stuffs at a later stage.

But why should you understand rather than just memorize it?

Simple. When you understand a concept, you will remember it for a long time if not just years whereas when you memorize the same, you will maximum remember it for say a few days or worse just for some time. Conceptual understanding helps you go deep into and understand the information on a deeper level unlike memorizing which merely touches the surface and helps you pass your exams.

So what benefits do you get from understanding and not memorizing?

Apart from the mentioned benefits, doing “real learning” can help you and your overall self grow as a better person and shifts your perception in the right direction. This task of overall development is impossible to achieve, if you go with the process of just memorizing. When you understand the underlying fundamentals, you are able to connect it with many other similar concepts that you encounter, compare it with other better ideas and generate many other new and creative ideas that might apply to the concept in real life scenarios. Whereas memorizing the fact without any interest on the subject won’t help you to achieve some valuable info in your life.

But everything has its pros and cons. While understanding is an important habit, memorizing too is needed. Memorizing is very much a helpful task needed if you want to recall that information at the much needed time.

Think of an exam hall. To clear the exam, you need to write out the answers. Here just understanding might be not a good idea as you need to fill the paper with the correct response. Hence you need to both understand and have a clear concept as well as cram up the lines to have an overall idea of the topic.

Memorizing is though really needed in situations when you are unable to grasp the idea, such as the subjects of History and Geography.  Here, understanding might not really work out that much.

Also, another notable thing is that memorizing may just help you to remember the exact concepts. If you are questioned something that’s out of your memory, you will be point blank. Whereas if you understand a concept, you will not only be able to remember it for long, but also be able to put it up in your own phrases and ideas as and whenever you need to and also explain it to anyone who needs that info.

So it all comes down to this! Memorizing will limit one’s brain to have the memorized content to ‘recall’ and use it for a short span of time, whereas understanding the underlying concept may also help in generating new, better and much more creative ideas.

Conceptual understanding is a much better practice than just mere memorization. Learning by understanding always helps you to gain more knowledge, perspective and grow to a well balanced portfolio.

Understanding concepts is also needed and will also help you to apply that knowledge to real world situations. Whereas memorizing up the things is of short term benefit and will not be of practical use and it can’t help you in understanding any concept or retain it for a long time.  Thus, we must always learn by understanding and not learn by memorizing.

- Sonal Bera