High-stakes exams

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When I was in high school, I found that I usually procrastinated study until the exam was pretty close (anywhere from two weeks to even the morning of the exam). I don't recall ever getting less than 50% in any exam, out of of the twenty or so I sat from tenth to twelfth grade. However, I find that a lot of that information I revised at the last minute basically just went away as soon as the exam was over. It's almost like my brain has some office where they decide what stays and what goes, and if it's not something that interests me it just goes straight to the shredder.

Does anybody have advice on what I should do at university/college, now that the stakes are higher and I will actually need this information in my career? Should I just bite the bullet and study in the conventional NT way (that is, sacrificing some effort away from assignments and towards a little study every day?). I'm a little lost, all this universuty stuff is pretty new to me,

I've found a couple of ways to do this and each works for different kinds of classes..

for a class where you have to regurgitate a lot of specific placenames, or characters, or what have you.. say a History or English class.. highlighting proper nouns, and then making a two column list with the noun in one column and a brief who/what/when/where/why paragraph next to it.

for something like a math class.. all I can really suggest is.. do every single problem given you for homework, and then do every single problem not given you for homework.. and then go to the learning support center/tutoring center at your school and ask for extra worksheets or photocopies from old books until you can do the stuff backwards and forwards.. it's time consuming and tedious but it is the only way I've found to be able to learn the stuff..

for something like a science class, or a practical applications class, I'd say read a page of your book, and then summarize it, then from your summary ask yourself questions and then go back and re-read the page and and answer those questions.. again.. time consuming and tediuous but it's the only thing I've found that works for me.

if you're taking say, 12 credit hours of classes, you probably should be doing at least 24 hours of studying per week.

For math and physics tests, I worked lots of problems and made sure I understood how and why rather than depending on the memorization of formulas.

For just about anything else, I would make outlines of the chapters, beefed up from my notes.

I think that what really helps is to make sure you see the material at least twice and through different mechanisms to reinforce the learning. Ideally, you listen to the material in class writing it down as you go and read the material from the book making an outline as you go.

I used to know a lawyer who hid a tape recorder in his brief case he took to his classes in law school to record the lectures. He would then listen to the tapes while driving around for his job. Then at night, he would transcribe the tapes onto paper, make multiple copies of those transcriptions, and sold those copies to the other students.

Just time. The more time you invest, the better your performance. It seems so simple, but it's true.

I guess when I've studied the best way is to have a dedicated place and time without distraction. After finishing something, like reading a chapter or article, finishing a math/science lab project, or whatever, sum up in writing the key points - the 'take home' message. I never liked studying for exams and, like you, I'd procrastinate. Instead, don't study but rather put in time everyday.

'Memory chunking' is the best way to memorise - that is, put it into context. Although I have a good memory, if it's something that doesn't matter much I almost don't care. Instead, tie your memorisation to something meaningful.

Motivation matters. If you are actually interested in the subject, then studying is not a chore. Try to make yourself want to and the time will come naturally. Yeah, organisation matters but that's entirely up to you as to what order makes sense.

When you do the assignments, make sure you pay attention to the details of what you're doing and make an effort to get things right. The assignments are supposed to help you learn, so you might as well take advantage of them.

Get a reasonable amount of sleep the night before a test. Staying up all night cramming is almost always counterproductive. In fact, cramming in general is mostly not useful. Doing some studying the night before is a better idea than the same amount of studying the morning of, since sleeping on things can help your memory.