Melted away education is frustrating, am I on the right track?

Question

I study at least a little bit everyday to keep up with all that I've learned in my electronic courses. Its' frustrating though to try and remember all the digital and solid state electronics though. What should I do?

Answer 1

Use it. Most people learn best with a "kinesthetic" approach, so do something physical with that knowledge. For example:
o Put together a radio -- anything from a crystal set to a digitally tuned AM-FM-SW with phase locked local oscillator, whether one you design or a kit.
o Make a VLF receiver and listen to whistlers.
o Make a Tesla coil.
o Make a Geiger counter.
o Add an analog-to-digital converter to a PC and log some phenomenon, for example barometric pressure or background radiation.
o Build a light detector that rings a bell, and pulser for a pocket laser to provide target practice.
o Build your own atomic force microscope.
Most important: do something you enjoy with that knowledge. Share it: donate what you built to a children's ward at a hospital, or teach a class with it.

Answer 2

One of the most important things we learn from getting an education is where to go to look for answers to the project problems that we get involved in. Nobody can remember everything that they are taught, and no one can be taught everything that they are going to need.
You young guys today are lucky, you can look almost anything up on the internet.
I still have file drawers full of technical articles and engineering technical data, and loose leaf notebooks full of technical reference materials, and most of the engineers that I worked with also had their own collections of "stuff."
What you need is a file cabinet and a bunch of loose leaf notebooks and a little spare time to start getting all of your "brains" organized so that you can find it when you need it and get rid of it when it becomes obsolete.
Good luck