Dear Karlo:

When you understand something taught and five minutes later you are a blank page, that, I believe, is a result of anxiety, fear. Learning is making new connections between nerve cells in our brains. We need to be calm to make those connections and keep them. Fear either makes us so frazzled that we don’t make connections (we don’t learn), or if we do learn, we don’t hold on to the learning: the connections made… unravel.

You are not stupid, Karlo: nothing wrong with your cognitive abilities. This is proven by the record of learning accomplishments, grades, that you listed in your post. It is anxiety. If you misunderstand it and think it is something else, you further scare yourself.

Continue to do the things that worked: exercise, nutrition, perhaps add slow yoga or Tai Chi, some slow, mindful exercise as this, to slow down your brain, to calm it down. Your learning and retention will improve!

Please do post again!

anita