The brain acts as a promiscuous encoding device (Oliver Hardt)

Photo by jesse orrico on Unsplash

The brain is amazing. 

To remember, the brain must actively forget (I recommend reading the whole article).

Oliver Hardt notes that at night many people can recall even the most mundane events of their day in detail, but then they forget them in the following days or weeks.

The reason, he thinks, is that the brain doesn’t know straight away what is important and what isn’t, so it tries to remember as much as possible at first, but gradually forgets most things. “Forgetting serves as a filter,” Hardt said. “It filters out the stuff that the brain deems unimportant.”

In the southern hemisphere generally, and NZ specifically, we're into the second week of a study break between terms.

After we return, students will have roughly 4 weeks to prepare for external exams.

How much will they remember from the last weeks of Term 3, let alone from pre-lockdown, or during our Alert Level 4 Lockdown?

Our outdated, no longer fit for purpose, rationale for having external exams needs re-examining at least and, hopefully, abolishing in my brain's opinion.