Most of us would agree on the fact that, in most cases, we cannot fully retain what we learn, at least not even half. We are so used to this fact that we think it is common to be so. But in reality, there is something we can do about this. If we change the pattern we learn we can retain 90% of what we have learnt.
This is true, let us have a look at those ways of learning and retaining.
If we implement that which we have learnt immediately or we teach it to someone else we retain 90% of what we have learnt.
If we put into practice what we have learnt we retain 75%.
If we engage ourselves in group discussion about what we have learnt we retain 50% of it.
If we look practically what we have learnt, (demonstration) we tend to retain 30% of it.
If we learn something from audio-visual medium we retain 20% of it.
If we learn something by reading we tend to retain only 10% of it.
If we learn something by hearing what someone says or teaches by way of a seminar or a lecture we retain only 5% of it.
So, what do we learn from these statistics, if we want to retain 90% of what we have learnt, we have to start implementing it. Because, when we start implementing what we have learnt, we tend to make mistakes, and then from those mistakes, we learn the right way and take corrective action. And in doing all this, we concentrate on the basic concept and then it gets imprinted in the mind.
So, the best way to learn and to retain what we have learnt is to put it into practice.