Does anyone have any tips of retaining spanish words? i can't seem to remember anything the spanish teacher teaches me, i write notes and pay attention.

This sounds cliche, but it takes practice. What I did when I took Spanish was test myself on the translations of the word. For example:

perro - dog

gato - cat

tortuga- turtle

I would cover up the english translation and just keep trying the guess it. So basically, I learned by repetition. Hope this helps.

yes you are correct