<p>Like in physics, calculus, chemistry, etc.</p>
<p>And who managed to change that in college?</p>
<p>I think it’s almost always or most of the time a combination of both because while we manage to get by exams and stuff we don’t really remember concepts but at the same time have an understanding of the topics. hope that makes sense</p>
<p>I found that for the subjects that I memorized I didn’t do really well while for those that I used understanding I aced everything.</p>
<p>Memorizing was all that was required. </p>
<p>Not to say I didn’t understand anything. I understood everything, but I never needed it for anything.</p>
<p>I hardly memorized anything because I thought I was above the system. Well.</p>
<p>Never memorized… too lazy</p>
<p>I am a memorizer for a class like AP Chem…which is why I did poorly. Hopefully I will turn it around in college.</p>
<p>I didn’t realize there were concepts in high school that had a component of understanding. It was all memorization for us.</p>
<p>There is a reason I always did poorly on those vocabulary tests. Way too much work</p>
<p>For vocabulary quizzes, I would memorize the words the day before and morning of. Also, something like US or Global history, I would definitely try to memorize all the information (subjects I totally do not care for lol), but usually failed. For chemistry or calculus exams, no studying was needed because its understood automatically.</p>
<p>How the hell (and more importantly what) do you memorize in Physics (at any level, HS or college)? In mechanics for example, everyone gets a formula sheet with their exam, so it’s not like just regurgitating formulas would do any good unless you conceptually understood how to manipulate them. </p>
<p>When you have a tiny paragraph of text and an entire blank page to set up a problem, you need to have a strong conceptual understanding of motion, force interactions, harmonic oscillations, energy interactions, etc. in order to set up free body diagrams, assign vectors and variables, properly manipulate formulas, etc.</p>
<p>^There are problems like that, which do require manipulation and not just a simple plug and chug formulaic process, but even then, you can still memorize the correct steps for that specific problem via homework or class work.</p>
<p>I did this all the time during my physics and chem classes.</p>