Do you find yourself forgetting things you've learned?

Web professionals forget things all the time. There's no way you can possibly remember every HTML element and CSS property.

For example, I've used CSS gradients in many of my videos and taught them several times, but right this second, I couldn't tell you the syntax for a radial gradient off the top of my head.

Memory comes with practice. Another example: If you're working on a project for several weeks and it uses lots of gradients, you'll probably know every bit of rarely used syntax and every browser quirk. A year and several projects later, if you haven't used the syntax since, you might have forgotten quite a lot of it. The difference though, is that it will come back to you faster the second time around.

When I look at the syntax for a thing I can't remember, I don't have to relearn it. Rather, it's much more like an actor forgetting their line; I just need the first word and then I'm like, "Oh yeah! Got it." :)

Every few days I go back and play through the quizzes again. If I trip up somewhere, I re-watch the video. Ultimately learning through repetition. This may be more ideal for me, since I am so new and I don't have to spend hours trudging through completed content.

Although I'm green to Treehouse and web design/development itself, I plan to design a mock web site using what I've learned here. Hopefully applying what I've learned will broaden my understanding as-well-as help me retain the information.

This is something that I too struggle with. I find myself forgetting certain pieces of code all the time. All it takes is practice, that's what I believe. Just keep coding and keep practicing and when you don't know something just look it up again. Just remember the saying "Practice makes Perfect". Always keep learning and reviewing

By the way, what I did prevent the forgetting part was that I ended up just taking notes in between the videos in the code that I wrote and commented it out. I also never deleted any code that was replaced by something else, but always left it there as an example (in a comment of course). Probably not the most efficient, if these files were every uploaded to the web, but since they're only here for me personally, I think I can deal with it (:

In addition to the great advice other provided, I would say it's also very important to have reliable resources at hand where you can look these things up. Notes are great but they can become outdated with time, so you might want to also include links in your notes to places where you can look for the most up-to-date information on that topic.

The best way to learn and keep sharp is to do a little bit of coding each and every day. This also doesn't have to be a specific language, just do a little bit of everything throughout the week.

+Nick Pettit I love your 3D image in your codepen, really cool!

I keep an evernote notebook called "programming reference". I don't note things like syntax that can be pulled up quickly in some documentation website. But I use this notebook to capture solutions that are specific to me. For example, if you have specific css shadow effect setting that you particularly like, you can drop it in a note. Then tag the note with "css" and "shadow". Over time, this becomes a personal wiki that I can go search, grab, apply really quickly. Just an idea for digitizing your brain :).

I have the same issue. I can go through a course, pass it 100 percent, the next day try to apply it and can't remember the first thing about it. It is frustrating and has made learning a struggle but I find that it helps to use pen and paper as I watch the videos. Also, if the course is a little on the difficult side, I will watch the video fully without pause, then watch it again and pause as needed to write, then I will begin to apply it, referring to my notes and watching the video a third time as needed. This has helped me a lot. The main thing to remember is that if this is something you want bad enough, take as much time as you need to learn it.