How to Remember What You Didn’t Understand
Jessica White July 24, 2025
We’ve all been there—reading a dense article, sitting through a complex lecture, or watching a tutorial that just doesn’t click. You feel lost, yet you know the information is important. The challenge? How to remember what you didn’t understand at first.
The emerging trend in learning science focuses on deliberate confusion and productive struggle as tools for deeper learning. Surprisingly, you can remember what didn’t make sense initially—if you approach it correctly. This article explores actionable techniques, supported by current research, to help you retain confusing content and make it meaningful later.
Why Remembering Confusing Content Matters
Modern learners face a constant stream of complex, unfamiliar information—from new software to evolving industries. Remembering what you didn’t initially understand helps you:
- Bridge knowledge gaps efficiently
- Avoid re-learning the same concepts repeatedly
- Build mental scaffolding for deeper understanding later
As learning scientist Manu Kapur (2016) explains, productive failure—the struggle to make sense of challenging content—can lead to stronger memory and eventual comprehension, as long as you capture and revisit the confusion.
The Science Behind Remembering the Unclear
Memory is not only about clarity—it’s about attention and retrieval cues. When something confuses you, it sticks out, triggering a cognitive phenomenon called the “generation effect”. This means that the act of trying to understand—even unsuccessfully—makes the brain encode the effort, which can aid future recall.
Additionally, researchers from the Journal of Experimental Psychology found that desirable difficulty—engaging with challenging material—enhances long-term retention, especially when learners reflect on what they didn’t get.
Emerging Trend: Capture-First Learning Systems
The popularity of note-taking platforms like Obsidian, Notion, and Logseq has sparked a trend called capture-first learning—where learners record confusion and questions immediately, then build understanding over time.
Instead of ignoring unclear content, users now tag and revisit confusing material, turning it into future learning opportunities. Apps even allow linked notes, connecting unclear concepts with future insights—a powerful way to remember what you didn’t understand originally.
How to Remember What You Didn’t Understand: Practical Strategies
1. Capture the Confusion Immediately
Don’t wait to understand—write it down as it is. Note:
- What didn’t make sense?
- What context was missing?
- What specific term or idea triggered confusion?
Use highlighting, voice memos, or tags like #confused or #toreview in your notes to flag the content.
Why it works: Capturing the moment of confusion keeps it accessible for your brain to revisit. It becomes a retrieval cue, helping you recall the learning moment later.
2. Use Placeholder Understanding
Instead of skipping a concept, explain what you think it might mean, even if you’re wrong. This technique, called elaborative interrogation, encourages active engagement.
Example: “This algorithm seems to group data…maybe it sorts it based on similarity?”
Why it works: Attempting an explanation—even an inaccurate one—improves memory through the testing effect, according to research in Psychological Science.
3. Space Out the Review
Schedule time to revisit confusing material after a delay. This is called spaced repetition, and it helps convert confusion into clarity by reinforcing memory.
Tools like Anki or built-in reminders in Notion can resurface confusing notes regularly.
Pro tip: When you revisit, add new insights or explanations. This turns the note into a living document, reflecting your growing understanding.
4. Create Concept Links
Link confusing content to related ideas that you do understand. This builds mental scaffolding, helping your brain connect the dots later.
Example: If you don’t understand quantum entanglement, link it to your notes on cause-and-effect or probability—concepts you do grasp.
Research shows that contextual learning, where new content is tied to prior knowledge, improves recall and comprehension.
5. Teach Back the Confusing Content
After some review, try explaining the concept to someone else—or even to yourself. Use simple terms. If you can’t explain it yet, note where you get stuck.
This method, known as the Feynman Technique, forces clarity and reinforces memory.
Even partial teaching attempts activate retrieval pathways, helping you remember not just what you understood, but also what you initially didn’t.
Real-World Example: Learning Complex Software
Let’s say you’re learning a new analytics platform and the dashboard layout makes no sense. Here’s how to remember and eventually understand it:
- Take a screenshot, annotate what’s confusing, and tag it #review.
- Guess what each button might do and write it down.
- Schedule a follow-up review for two days later.
- Link it to other tools you know (e.g., “This resembles Excel functions”).
- Explain it to a peer after exploring it further.
Over time, your confusion log turns into an insight database, and you remember not only how it works—but how you figured it out.
The Role of Reflection in Retaining Confusion
Don’t just capture confusion—reflect on it. Weekly reflection sessions help you:
- Spot recurring patterns of what confuses you
- Measure progress from “didn’t understand” to “fully grasped”
- Build metacognition, or awareness of how you learn
Reflection boosts memory consolidation, especially for previously confusing topics.
Pitfalls to Avoid
- Avoiding confusion: Don’t skip unclear content. Capture it confidently.
- Overloading review: Don’t review everything daily. Space it out.
- Waiting for perfect clarity: Start noting confusion even when answers aren’t in sight.
Consistency is key. Regularly engaging with confusion leads to mastery over time.
Future Trends: AI-Powered Memory Assistance
AI tools are emerging to help users remember what they didn’t understand:
- Readwise surfaces confusing highlights automatically.
- RemNote uses spaced repetition for question-based review of unclear content.
- Upcoming tools aim to flag confusing patterns in real-time, guiding users to revisit and resolve them efficiently.
Expect AI-assisted note linking and intelligent review prompts to support learning from confusion even more effectively in the near future.
Conclusion
Understanding doesn’t always come first. But with the right approach, you can remember what you didn’t understand and convert confusion into lasting knowledge.
Capture the moment of confusion, review it regularly, link it to what you know, and teach it back over time. Learning is not about instant clarity—it’s about engaging with uncertainty and building understanding from the ground up.
Next time something doesn’t make sense, don’t walk away. Write it down. That’s the first step toward remembering—and eventually, mastering it.
References
- Luo, Y., Xie, S. and Zhang, M. (2018) ‘Elaborative interrogation and its effect on long-term retention’. Journal of Educational Psychology, 110(3), pp. 354-368. Available at: https://doi.org
- Roediger, H.L. and Butler, A.C. (2011) ‘The critical role of retrieval practice in long-term retention’. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 15(10), pp. 377-384. Available at: https://doi.org
- Dunlosky, J., Rawson, K.A., Marsh, E.J., Nathan, M.J. and Willingham, D.T. (2013) ‘Improving students’ learning with effective learning techniques: Promising directions from cognitive and educational psychology’. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 14(1), pp. 4-58. Available at: https://journals.sagepub.com
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