Do you remember anything from your degree?

[densecity]

Twenty years ago, I studied Classics at Cambridge. Mainly Greek history rather than literature. I then took the age old path of becoming a lawyer. Still in practice. I realised the other day that I can't remember much at all from my degree. It's scary to think that I spent four years of my life studying a subject and I can barely remember dates or names.

Some I do remember. I read Law as an undergraduate and graduated in 1990. Particularly I clearly remember Peter Birks' seminars on the Law of Restitution. He had a brilliant mind. But more than that he was an outstanding and passionate teacher. That made all the difference.

Haha, coincidentally, DD1 (who has just graduated) asked me exactly this question earlier this evening!

I have to confess, the answer was no. I read Chemistry at Oxford eleventy billion years ago, and did not follow a career in science. I still have a sciency brain, good with numbers, and am able to grasp scientific concepts easily, but have completely forgotten my degree content since closing my books. I found my organic thesis in the loft a few months ago, and it might as well have been written in Dutch.

I have a degree and PhD in biochemistry and work in the pharmaceutical industry. I remember nothing about the Krebs cycle or photosynthesis despite spending hours drawing very complicated diagrams with different colour coded information but still remember the tiny amount of stuff that's relevant to what I do now. Although that is very easy to google these days.

The more I study, the more I know,
The more I know, the more I forget,
The more I forget, the less I know
So why study?

Yes, loads. It was English & History though. Still my favourite interests.

I work in a university tho not connected to those areas (I did different postgrad qualifications) and that probably does help.

Social work degree in 2010

I enjoyed writing my dissertation on a topic I chose but otherwise very little of the academic side - I recall being read to from slides and it being incredibly boring.

The two year placement memories and experiences however will remain with me for a very long time.

Yes, I'm chartered in my degree subject. Despite being more managerial now, my technical knowledge is essential and I use different bits of it every day.

Classical music and Italian forty years ago. I remember a lot of the music history modules I studied and what I performed in exams. I started Italian from scratch and don't remember the literature so well (except that we studied Dante's Inferno!). I can read and understand Italian moderately well and it comes back when I visit. I speak French every day which is both a help and a hindrance!

Very similar to you OP, did philosophy then law. Can’t remember a thing about philosophy except the ‘trolley problem’ and regret not doing a more vocational degree.

Studying for a degree is about so much more than facts. Rather you learn to think differently, you analyse and question.

The geologists were so very good at colouring in though.

My first degree was English literature and I remember pretty much nothing.

My second was work related (and dull) and I do remember it.

Yep - all 4 of them 🙂

Professional degree and placements. Remember a lot of it. Mostly cos the knowledge is still relevant.

I remember lots, but I'm now an A level college lecturer and teach a good half of what I did in my degree, so have used it every day for the past 20+ years. Thankfully I teach a subject that doesn't change much.

That said, we were allowed to keep the exam papers from our finals, and I was looking at some of the questions the other day (from the half I don't teach) and it was all gobbledegook to me. Too many big long words I no long understand!

Partly. I studied politics & economics. The economics is directly relevant to my current job, the politics isn’t.

I do still take an interest in politics, though, and some of what I was taught in the early 90s hasn’t aged well at all. I remember lecturers confidently telling us that Tory voters were ‘literally dying out’ and that demographic changes meant the party was inevitably doomed. 25+ years later Boris Johnson’s Tories won a landslide by smashing Labour’s coalition of educated metropolitan liberals and traditional ‘red wall’ working class voters.

You’d better hope I do as I’m a grade 8 Nursing Sister on an Intensive Care unit.

We were indeed. I had my own special set of coloured pencils just for colouring in.

Geophysicist DH insists that you don’t need to know the name of a rock, just the numbers associated with it. He still gets grumpy if you say the word fossil.

Another one who did law and now practising as a lawyer.

I only remember a handful of case names but can remember the principles of each area of law I studied. It made sense to me.

I currently practice in an area which requires breadth rather than depth of knowledge in law. So it suits me to a T.

It much though I feel I have a grasp of the broad sweep of it. And understand How it works. I did an OU module in lockdown 1 which I really enjoyed. My dd1 did the same subject at uni 30 years later and we often enjoy a good nerdy debate on it.

Yes some, 36 years later, BA (Hons) Business Studies
Mainly Maslow's hierarchy of needs, Herzberg, McGregor Z & Y, Belbin, some law, Carlill V Carbolic Smoke Ball and the one with the snail in the ginger beer bottle, Donahue vs Stevenson, the 4 Ps in Marketing, economics passed me by other than plenty of graphs of supply and demand, none of which I got once it got complicated. Some accountancy stuff, P&L, balance sheet, ratios etc. Have never really used any of it again in my proper job. Glad I know it though. X

Not so much the knowledge, but I remember more about the people etc

Yes. I did a German degree and graduated in the late 90s. I still speak and read German.

I remember the lecturer I shagged 😳 and some of my boyfriends, a few of my classmates and my housemates. I remember quite a few things from my night club job, some of the clothes I wore and my fashionable awful long perm.

I remember some of my dissertation, a very few bits of Economics and one, solitary case from Common Law (the carbolic smokeball, for everyone else who did that!) The thing I wish I still knew is Statistics - I still love stats but, every time I want to do an even slightly advanced analysis, I have to re-learn what to do.

Ah the special set of colouring pens. That takes me back…

Specialised in the numerical mechanical side of things so it’s all about the numbers and weird looking plots these days 🤣

Don’t point me at a stereonet, I never did get the hang of those. Or rock mechanics, far too many numbers (though weirdly soil mechanics was far more my thing).