How Difficult Is College If You Can’t Remember What You Learned In High School? A Teacher’s Perspective
The condensation from Lila’s iced latte was pooling on the wooden table between us last week, turning the edge of her crumpled notebook page translucent. She graduated from my 12th grade study skills class three months ago, starts community college in the fall, and had asked to meet to talk about something that was keeping her up at night. She flipped the notebook open to a messy list: Can’t remember how to do trig factoring. Barely recall 2 parts of the cell theory. Don’t know how many amendments there are to the Constitution. “Is college gonna be impossible?” she asked, picking a crumb off her blueberry muffin. “I spent all summer working at the plant nursery to pay for my textbooks, and I honestly forgot most of what I crammed for finals.”
I’ve gotten this question enough that I immediately thought of Jake, who graduated in 2021, took a gap year to work construction, and showed up at my door panicking two weeks before his first semester of pre-nursing. He couldn’t remember any of the high school biology he’d need for his intro class, and he was convinced he’d dropped $1,000 on tuition for nothing.
Over the 12 years I’ve taught high school, I’ve talked to dozens of local college professors for a transition workshop I run, and almost all of them say the same thing: 80% of incoming freshmen can’t recall most of the specific facts they learned in high school. It’s not just kids who took a gap year or spent summer working—even kids who graduated with a 4.0 forget most of what they crammed for AP exams by the time fall rolls around. The human brain just doesn’t work like a hard drive; it dumps information you don’t use regularly.
What most kids and parents don’t realize is that colleges don’t actually expect you to remember every fact from high school. Most intro classes are built from the ground up to re-teach the core basics they need. My friend who teaches intro biology at the state university spends the first two full weeks of every semester reviewing high school cell theory, chemistry basics, and lab safety, because he knows no one remembers that stuff from three months earlier. Even for upper-level prereqs, the vast majority of professors post free 10 to 15 minute review videos on their course pages for students who need a refresh.
The only time forgetting high school content becomes a real problem is when a student panics so much they freeze up, or when they don’t take a little targeted action to brush up on the key skills they actually need. When Lila asked what she should actually do instead of spiral, I gave her the same concrete steps I give every kid who asks this question.
First, don’t waste your whole summer cramming four years of high school content. It’s boring, it’s overwhelming, and you’ll just forget most of it again anyway. Instead, pull up your fall class schedule, write down the name of each class, and google “top 5 high school concepts needed for [insert class here].” For Lila, that was basic algebra for her required math class and child development for her intro early ed course. It took her 10 minutes to pull up a free review list from her college’s learning center website, and she can spend 15 minutes a night for two weeks before classes brushing up on just those key points. That’s way more effective than cramming everything.
Second, if you’re really shaky on a prereq, go to the college’s free learning center before the semester starts. Almost every public college and community college has free, drop-in review sessions for core content, and librarians can print you a free one-page review sheet for almost any subject. Jake did that before his first bio class, spent two afternoons going over cell structure and basic chemistry with a tutor, and ended up with a B+ that semester. He’s now in his second year, and still says that two hours of targeted review was all he needed.
Third, just ask your professor on the first day. I tell kids to raise their hand and say, “I’m a little rusty on my high school basics for this class—what’s one concept you’d recommend I brush up on first?” Most professors will give you a straight answer, and they don’t judge you for it. They see it every year. When I went back to get my master’s in education five years ago, I couldn’t remember any of the research stats I’d learned as an undergrad, so I emailed my professor ahead of time. She sent me a two-page review sheet and a link to a 20 minute video, and that was all I needed to keep up.
I’ve had parents email me worried about this too, saying their kid skipped reviewing over summer and they’re scared they’ve messed up their kid’s college before it even started. I tell them what I told Lila’s mom, who texted me afterward to ask if Lila should take an expensive summer review class: the fact that your kid spent summer working, or traveling, or just resting after 12 years of school isn’t a waste. Learning how to hold a job, manage a schedule, or just take a break is more useful for college success than cramming 100 old high school facts you’ll just forget again anyway.
Lila left coffee last week feeling lighter, she said. She’s already made her short list of key concepts to review, and she’s signed up for the learning center’s open house the week before classes start. I don’t know how her first semester will go—there will probably be late nights, tough exams, and moments she’ll struggle regardless of how much she remembers from high school. But I know the panic she felt last week is way bigger than the actual problem she’s facing. Most kids forget high school content before college. Most of them figure it out. That’s just how it goes.
Please indicate: Thinking In Educating » How Difficult Is College If You Can’t Remember What You Learned In High School