I found this interesting nugget at Tor Norbye's Weblog. Tor is one of the members of the Java Posse podcast. His most recent post explains the benefits of sitting in the front of the class, or a presentation, to retain more material. Based on a study conducted it looks as though the simple act of sitting at the front and center of the class doubles the amount of material a person can retain. I don't know about everyone else but I'll do whatever I can to try and get an edge. If sitting in the front and center of the class helps me in the regard than I'm going to start doing it more often. My only motivation for doing so in the past was to try and stay awake.