How much can the human brain really hold?

[chip_gilkey]

I've been thinking about this a lot lately. I'm taking Latin right now (second quarter) and I still have 2 more quarters to go, plus I need to take 4 quarters of french so I can have a good chance of getting accepted into grad school.

So this situation got me thinking about how much can the human brain possibly remember. I can't imagine being able to remember 8 quarters of foreign language, plus all of the other knowledge I need to succeed in grad school. Is there a certain point where your brain just starts deleting stuff in order to make room for new stuff? I hate taking classes that don't pertain to my major because I feel like the stuff learn in that class is deleting stuff I really need to remember .

[tupperware]

Originally Posted by chip_gilkey

I've been thinking about this a lot lately. I'm taking Latin right now (second quarter) and I still have 2 more quarters to go, plus I need to take 4 quarters of french so I can have a good chance of getting accepted into grad school.

So this situation got me thinking about how much can the human brain possibly remember. I can't imagine being able to remember 8 quarters of foreign language, plus all of the other knowledge I need to succeed in grad school. Is there a certain point where your brain just starts deleting stuff in order to make room for new stuff? I hate taking classes that don't pertain to my major because I feel like the stuff learn in that class is deleting stuff I really need to remember .

I think it's limitless to be honest, but I think things get stored in a certain way. In other words, things you might remember from when you were 4 or 5 years old if anything about it was significant. I also think you tend to remember things by repetition, which is probably how you can learn so many languages and remember it all.

I think a good example for this, is when you're driving down the road or just doing something random and you see something that resembles a thing from years and years ago and immediately you remember that occasion and sight.

[Rack Bauer]

Originally Posted by chip_gilkey

How much can the human brain really hold?

Originally Posted by chip_gilkey

I've been thinking about this a lot lately

Careful, you'll run out of room...

[chip_gilkey]

Originally Posted by Rack Bauer

Careful, you'll run out of room...

lol well done, sir. well done.

[Hoofbite]

Originally Posted by chip_gilkey

I've been thinking about this a lot lately. I'm taking Latin right now (second quarter) and I still have 2 more quarters to go, plus I need to take 4 quarters of french so I can have a good chance of getting accepted into grad school.

So this situation got me thinking about how much can the human brain possibly remember. I can't imagine being able to remember 8 quarters of foreign language, plus all of the other knowledge I need to succeed in grad school. Is there a certain point where your brain just starts deleting stuff in order to make room for new stuff? I hate taking classes that don't pertain to my major because I feel like the stuff learn in that class is deleting stuff I really need to remember .

Why so much foreign language and why splitting it between two languages?

You're barely getting a firm grasp at all. Not that it matters at all really, you can take foreign language classes online and transfer them over......essentially learning nothing.

I dunno about your undergrad requirements for graduation, provided you will be there long enough to graduate before going to grad school, but the university I went to required 4th level proficiency in a single language.

That's 4 semesters.

[REDVOLUTION]

Originally Posted by Rack Bauer

Careful, you'll run out of room...

Oh, SNAP!

[CowboyMcCoy]

Retaining information occurs the best when you discover something or practice it a lot. Concepts are not hard to remember, but things like language and other ideas take discovery or practice. A little or, in my case, a lot of studying never hurt.

[REDVOLUTION]

Originally Posted by CowboyMcCoy

Retaining information occurs the best when you discover something or practice it a lot. Concepts are not hard to remember, but things like language and other ideas take discovery or practice. A little or, in my case, a lot of studying never hurt.

And yet, a computer gets the information once and its ALWAYS retrievable.

When humans transcend biology. Cant get here soon enough.

[Signals]

You need this. What Smart Students Know. I think it will be worth your time and money. This is not a gimmick book, it's based on research that was done to determine why some students succeed and others fail and what successful students with average intelligence do/did that helped them excel while students with higher IQ's failed.

I can almost guarantee you that you'll pick up some techniques that will get you over the hump and increase your learning curve.

[chip_gilkey]

Originally Posted by Hoofbite

Why so much foreign language and why splitting it between two languages?

You're barely getting a firm grasp at all. Not that it matters at all really, you can take foreign language classes online and transfer them over......essentially learning nothing.

I dunno about your undergrad requirements for graduation, provided you will be there long enough to graduate before going to grad school, but the university I went to required 4th level proficiency in a single language.

That's 4 semesters.

I am a history major at Ohio State and they require 4 quarters of foreign language to graduate as an undergrad. Every professor I've spoken to about grad school (anywhere, no necessarily OSU) has said that in addition to the 4 quarters of foreign language for undergrad most grad schools require that you have at least another 4 in a second foreign language. And I'm not sure exactly what you mean by 4th level. As in 4th grade level reading ability?