AIBU or is learning so much harder as you get older?

[Whereareallthejellyfish]

I am doing a course through work, which is a complex subject anyway, however I am finding it so hard!

I'm having to read the text over and over and even then it's not really going in.

I am assuming it could be my learning style, I'm a kinaesthetic learner and this course is reading pages of text/diagrams and then answering some knowledge check questions. There's lots of new and confusing terminology too.

I'm 38, is it my age?? I used to soak up information at school, what's wrong with me now??

I'm much older than you and studying for a degree so YABU!

Edited to say I think I study MUCH better now than I would have at 18...

I feel the same, I've found better techniques for focus and methods of breaking work down over time. I dropped out of my degree at 20 and then smashed one while working full time in my 30s.

We have less energy, and that can make it seem harder - but that's the only real hindrance I think, unless it's something like languages which are easier to absorb as a child.

I have four degrees, including a PhD, in tough things from some of the most competitive institutions in the world. Yet I just wasted over two weeks on trying to figure out something that should have been simple. The answer finally came to me last night after I had read and re-read material that even a new undergrads probably know very well.

The point is, you are completely normal. It's normal to have to re-read things. That's what people usually mean when they say they're "studying."

Our bodies (including our brains) do change as we age, but you're 38, not 98! Researchers don't always agree about what's going on but I've read recently that many of them think it's easier to learn when we're very young because we have nothing else to do. At 38, there are many other things buzzing around in your brain. You'll be conscious that you have to get work tasks done and go grocery shopping. The neighbours will complain if you don't mow the lawn, etc.

It's also easier to learn things when we have experience in those things. When I was a student, taking course after course in whatever, I could build on the knowledge I had just learned and it seemed easy to learn new material because of that. Now I'm trying to reach back in my brain to stuff I learned 20 years ago--and advances in my field since then mean that there are new basics I need to learn.

Stop freaking out, stop being hard on yourself. The key to success is persistence. So keep going. In my field, it's the people who can deal with feeling ignorant and having to study hard who make new discoveries. Learning how to educate ourselves in spite of how hard it is is what distinguishes people like you (who are making the effort to keep learning and developing) from those who get left behind. You should feel nothing but proud of what you're doing.

It honestly makes me laugh and cry in equal measure when people in their 30s talk about being too old for things. I'm 51 and I'm not too old for anything.

It does get harder to learn as you get older but you're 38 FFS. It's more likely to do with other distractions such as work/kids though. There's no cognitive reason why at 38 you shouldn't be able to learn.

I'm trying to learn a language at the moment and do think if I'd starred in childhood it would have been much easier. My daughter is a sponge whereas my brain just doesn't seem to have room for this amount of information.

Thank you for all the replies, some interesting takes there!

Just to clarify @Thepeopleversuswork I didn't say I am too old for anything, just wondering if being older (not old) impacts on the ability to study

Good points made about the mind being on other things, with a house full of children and pets it is bound to wander at times!

It's nice to know I'm not alone

Btw, learning styles have been discredited in terms of explaining how easy or hard it is for people to learn things. It may be more enjoyable to learn in a certain way, but it doesn’t make it easier or harder to learn