How do you know if you understand something?

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I realize after my mid 20s, I didn't like to regurgitate information. You know how sometimes you look up a word in a dictionary and that word is within the definition. I once took a basic electronics course. I had trouble understanding potential energy. I think he used the word "potential" in his definition. I didn't understand. Plus I couldn't picture potential energy because it is abstract.

Or in a psychology textbook, it defines a term and you repeat to yourself so you can remember the definition. These are what I meant by regurgitating info. Repeating info and after test, forget. Repeating info into memory silently or out loud don't help.

This is why I don't think I understand stuff. I just don't want to repeat what someone says. Maybe you guys know what I'm talking about. I just don't feel that I understand stuff.

Yeah rote memory stuff was never something that made sense to me... the idea that if you just repeat something over and over it will sink in. It worked great for me in the short term to, for example, pass a test, but the material rarely stuck in my brain beyond that. Like what is the point if you won't retain it? So weird to me. But I do better with other forms of learning... I am the type that needs to 'do' something or otherwise engage a concept before it makes any sense to me on any level. I don't like just repeating info either, it does not benefit me at all, in the long run anyway. I think part of my problem though could be that I am awful with practical application of random facts. I think that is why doing something works better for me than repeating something. I dunno. But yeah, for me, I know if I understand a thing if I can practically apply the knowledge somewhere, somehow.