Memorization or Understanding? Which one would you pick? Would you rather be able to memorize a lot of things or deeply understand certain things?

In school, homework assignments are put in place to help students retain the information learned in class. They want students to understand what they are learning through practiced repetition.

On quizzes, tests, or exams, students would be given some sort of multiple-choice and/or free-response questions.

From my experience, I found that I preferred multiple-choice questions in classes that I struggled in and I was indifferent in classes that I excelled at (basically just math). The reason behind this was that multiple-choice questions offered an opportunity to guess correctly, whereas I couldn’t correctly write out an answer. And for math, I knew I would be able to answer correctly regardless of the method of answering.

Throughout grade school, I always struggled with vocabulary. I recall in middle school always asking my friends what a specific word meant, and I did this quite often. Sometimes I wouldn’t even ask, so I wouldn’t be able to fully grasp what a teacher said. Plus, some words that my friends already defined for me slipped from my mind frequently, as my memory was suboptimal.

I still remember having one of the lowest AR reading levels in my 5th-grade class. I was only allowed to check out from the AR level range indicated on my green library card – about 3.2 to 4.8 (low 3rd-grade to high 4th-grade level). I only remember reading the “Magic Tree House” books, which I found entertaining, but that was it.

With a low aptitude for reading, I found myself in a loop. I was bad at reading because I didn’t read enough; and I didn’t read enough because I was bad at reading. And because of this, I slacked on reading assignments all the time.

So, you could already guess what it was like for me whenever we were supposed to read a book for English/Language Arts class. You got it: I would struggle mightily.

Reading assignments turned into “last-minute Shmoop sessions”. Well in elementary school, I just bombed the pop quizzes; but in middle and high school, I would quickly search up the chapter summaries on Shmoop before my English/L.A. class period. Despite having a general idea of what the book was about (sometimes not even that), I did not test well.

Even when the chapter was read in class, I would either zone out or try to follow along. In both cases, I still felt lost afterward.

So yeah….. I had little to no understanding of what was going on, and even if I could rely on memorization, my lack of it wouldn’t get me too far.

On the other hand, math was easy for me. But it wasn’t always that way.

My mom had me memorize the times tables at a young age. I argued with her that 1+1 was 100. And when she said I was wrong, I started crying. On top of that, she made me remember the times tables in Chinese, which wasn’t easy at first either.

I eventually started enjoying math and, in retrospect, my mom’s teaching was worth it because it only made it easier from there.

Most of my classmates started panicking whenever it was time for math. Some friends would ask to copy my homework assignments, some would spend the last few minutes studying. I completely understood how they felt because that was me in basically every other class. The most dreaded words were “put everything away”, as that usually meant it was time to take a test.

My friends would ask, “John, are you ready for the [math] test?”.

I would reply, “What test?”

That always cracked me up because I never really studied for a math test. Most of the time, the homework assignments were enough for me to understand the concept. But it wasn’t so funny when I was on the other end of it. I would look at my peers in English, History, and Science class and wonder “how is it so easy for you?” It seemed as if they were born with a certain talent I did not have. And I know of certain classmates that had such good memory and could rely on that alone.

So I’ve been around and met people who had a great memory and those who really knew the ins and outs of a certain topic, a true understanding. From what I’ve seen and experienced, I would have to side with understanding over memorization.

Now, this is assuming that the two are mutually exclusive, which they are not. I’m not saying it’s bad to have a good memory. Far from it. I’m just saying that in the case that I had to choose one or the other, understanding would be more valuable to me.

When I think of memorization, the first thing that pops into my mind is trivia. Trivia usually covers a lot of different topics, and participants will guess the answer to the questions. While it is definitely a great source of entertainment and people can display their vast array of knowledge, it’s not very practical.

Memorization to me is more broad and shallow and understanding is more narrow and deep. Memorization is like liberal arts and understanding is like majors.

But now let’s look at memorization and understanding from a more realistic perspective. These two actually complement each other very well whilst working together. If you purely understood something, but it often slipped your brain, that wouldn’t be great. If you purely memorized something, but you couldn’t hold a productive conversation on it, then that would be boring. Having a deep understanding of something and being able to remember it after a period of time will allow you to access the knowledge in your brain almost instantly whenever.

For example, let’s say you are learning to cook. You buy a recipe book and find something you want to make. So you follow all the steps exactly and enjoy the meal. After a while, you want to make the same dish, but you forgot how to do it. So you go back to the recipe book and repeat it. And then again and again.

In this scenario, you have a bad memory and are not seeking to understand how to cook. Without either of these, you are left depending on the cookbook.

What if you had bad memory but were seeking to understand the recipe. You read over the recipe and try to understand the reasoning behind the ingredients. “This ingredient is listed because it complements this well. This is here because it is used to season meats.” And now that you understand the reasoning behind the recipe, even if you forget, you can retrace the thought behind the recipe.

When you have a good memory but no understanding, you would be able to memorize the recipe easily. But the lack of understanding won’t allow you to explain the reasoning behind the recipe. If you have children or friends that ask, “So why is this ingredient in this?”, you would probably respond along the lines of, “I don’t know, that’s just what the cookbook said, and I’m following that.” There won’t be much thought behind anything, more like blindly following.

But when having good memory and understanding, you will be able to remember the recipe and explain its details and components. You could educate others on the topic from your own perspective instead of basing your opinions purely on that of others.

Understanding is taking an active approach to learning something in depth. Memorization is more of a passive reliance.

I like to think of these two in terms of language learning. Understanding is like the words and memorization is like the grammar. You shouldn’t be focusing only on grammar. You should primarily look to expand your vocabulary and put it into practice, and then use the grammar as the glue, holding everything together.

I would rather speak to someone that understands the words I am saying than someone who only knows the grammar.

Even though I didn’t have a good memory, I believe my memory has overall improved. Memory goes hand in hand with understanding. Once you understand something deeply, the amount of experience you have on that topic will improve your memory. The more you do something, the more you get used to it (ex. muscle memory).

So if you ever are looking to become great at something, seek to understand it and keep using it, which will improve your memory on that respective topic.