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Same - I was a straight A student, loved solving math problems, but now I don’t remember a thing. I think it’s just how our brain works - it gets rid of knowledge that we don’t use any longer. Muscle memory like swimming or riding bicycle stays, but seems like language and math skills don’t retain unless they are being practiced.

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I don't think so. The feeling described here is familiar to me with certain areas of maths, ones that I definitely knew and have then forgotten seemingly entirely, but when I had to get back into them it was nowhere near having to relearn them.

It's true that you forget without regular usage, but it seems the "concept" sticks around, and all you need is some refresher to be able to access it again.

The information isn't erased - it's just that the retrieval synapses haven't been reinforced. It is relatively easy to do that.

Yes, and I believe that still existing but somewhat inaccessible information isn't just what was learned on the surface, but also includes the hard-earned intuition that was formed on the topic.

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