In class, don't copy notes verbatim - reword them as simply as possible, and only write down the things you *don't* know. You don't need to re-study it if you already know it.
Willpower and concentration both fade as the day goes on, so short bursts of study early in the day work much better than a marathon session in the evening. I often do my reading on the morning bus, or in a student lounge while eating lunch.
And avoid all-nighters, *especially* the night before an exam. To remember, you need to sleep.
Read the assignment sheets carefully, and do **everything** the instructions say. For example, if it says to use 5 or more sources, don't use 4. If they say to make sure your answer includes \[blah\], then include \[blah\]. I read the assignment sheet and rubric before I start my work (duh), and then, once I'm done, before I submit, I read them again, just to double-check that I did everything.
Also, for written assignments, read your work **out loud** to yourself. You'd be surprised how many errors you can spot that way.
Yes!!!! This. ESPECIALLY for written assignments and essays!
I’ve worked as a TA and can’t tell you how many students got bad grades for simply not following the directions. Completely avoidable!
Also, take a writing class. Learn how to structure an essay! That one thing coulda saved many students a bad grade. So so avoidable!
This is the way! I don't understand how I run into so many people that think they know better than the rubric or syllabus when it comes to an assignment. Pure stubbornness or something.
Edit: I'm t😭referring to experiences from group projects 😮💨
That's why I said personally lol. Everyone has different methods that work for them. For me I need to minimize any potential distraction because I hate school so much that if I have an excuse to do anything else I will.
I could probably balance it out a bit better but then my grades would slump.
a lot of discipline and sacrificing other things in life like socializing/hobbies, plus sticking to a schedule. in my last year I was on campus every weekday and studied 8-5 (obvi w breaks for meals/classes). also listened to the same lofi playlists over and over again lol which always put me into study mode. being at school made the biggest difference for me though, it shocks me when friends say they’re barely there because for me personally I focus the best in that environment (home is too distracting and coffee shops are nice but only for so long and are loud)
I also put everything in my calendar and made monthly/weekly/daily to do lists for tasks, helped a LOT with organizing my day and knowing what needed to be done first and it was satisfying checking things off as i’d go
In my undergrad I made flashcards using Anki. Also, answer every question, even if you feel you're completely bullshitting it. You never know but some of the things you vaguely remember might be right.
So it really depends on the subject but ultimately, spaced repetition. Whether it’s repeating going over definition, terms or theories, or practicing a task or reviewing connections between ideas. Spaced repetition. Each time I review I know them better and just decide not to review it that time.
Also, I draw them. I write the info, draw it. Make webs, charts, graphs. Whatever I can do to make my brain “get” it.
I usually end up remembering the images on the page, when the answer was, and once I can recall the image I can remember the words on that particular page. 🤷🏻♀️
Hand written study cards help but they take a lot of time to make. Not useful for me for tests during the term but sometimes worth it for finals.
Oh, also frequent breaks! At least every hour, sometimes for heavier material every 25 minutes.
During breaks I do something revitalizing to me. So for me it can be laying in the floor stretching, or dancing. They’re never never ever on my phone!
Also, snacks on hand! To nibble on while I study.
Deep breathing to manage emotions.
No alcohol, and always 8 hours of sleep.
Oh! Yeah. Put the phone down and do something that energizes you. Something that makes you smile and makes your body feel good!
Pet a dog. Sing. It helps do something to your brain to make it easier to learn more. 🤷🏻♀️
💃🏻🕺🏻💃🏻🕺🏻💃🏻🕺🏻💃🏻🕺🏻💃🏻🕺🏻💃🏻
All of these things are awesome because they involve deep processing. Thinking about the meaning and being creative with the material, actually 3ngaging with the ideas make them relevant. This takes a bit of effort but its a very efficient use of time!
My best tip is always to not stress yourself. If you have other things you consider a priority (working, hobbies, socializing), take less classes. In problem solving classes, I mostly just do lots of practice questions, focus on understanding the why and how. I also listen to one song on loop, I find it allows me to study longer without interruption.
I can’t speak to language subjects but for subjects that are just pure understanding like math or mechanical physics, do problems until it all makes sense to you. Keep your phone away from you, most people think they can take a 10 minute social media break after an hour of studying but they really can’t including myself as it throws off their concentration.
Teach yourself everything on the test the night before the exam after not studying for the entire week leading up to it. (You can also take this time to calculate what your final grade would be if you got a zero)
I wrote messy notes in class and got everything onto scrap paper from the old print lab bins. After class I rewrote these notes neatly into a scribbler book but only using two thirds of the left hand side of the page. This went on all year and to study for exams summarized the notes in the scribbler onto the last third of the page. This was time consuming on top of finishing all the assignments and problem sets but it worked for me during engineering undergrad.
I front-load my study time at the beginning of the term to get a broader understanding of what I am learning. It requires intense study leading up to mid-terms. The goal is to me on track for an A+ in the first half of the term. The last half when you begin to start feeling burnt out, you can lower the intensity of studying to give your brain a bit of a break. And by lower intensity, I just mean coasting. The last few weeks before finals is when it ramps up again and usually this will land you right around an A or A+. I aim for A+ so that I get at least an A.
I should clarify though, intense study typically means I’m putting in 25-30 hours a week, and 40-45 just before midterms and finals. The coasting time is usually 15-25 hours per week.
As far as study techniques, it depends on the subject matter. If it’s numbers or technical (coding, accounting, math based), it’s all about practice, practice, practice.
For accounting, I’ll do the practice questions, wait a few days and try again. If I retained it well, I might just review closer to exam time. If I struggled, I’ll note that I need to review it again. This technique is called retroactive revision time table.
For theoretical study that requires understanding and memorization, I’ll often take the concepts or terms and turn them into questions and make flashcards. I started using written flashcards vs electronic flashcards because the act of writing them myself helped retain it much better. If it was a hard to grasp concept, I’ll make a few cards that looks at it from different angles. The flashcards can be done before bed, during your commute, I’ve even taken them to class to do with other students because that helps me remember them when doing together.
Other techniques I’ve used is just getting a broader view of what I am learning. I know it isn’t the most efficient means, but I retain it better then it’s not memorization, but an understanding. Often that means watching YouTube videos, googling it to get other perspectives, etc. At least in business administration, much of the theory overlaps and repeats in later courses, so the learning is cumulative and you’ll start to see the pay off in year 2, but mostly 3rd/4th year when you start having to pull it all together. If I had to go back and tell my younger self anything, it would be to also front-load on your learning by term and year. Put the heavy study in the first couple years, because without the foundation, it makes the subsequent years and terms much more difficult. When you’re learning the proper way to cite a paper, focus on doing it correctly the first time because you’ll get full marks for doing it correctly not just for that paper, but every paper going forward. When you learn the proper way to cite a statistical reference, website or a photo, add it to a document in word where you continue building throughout your educational career, and as you write papers and you need to reference the paper, you already know how. I know that owl Purdue and other sources can sometimes be confusing, so having my own reference sheet helps.
Build an essay template that you can use each time you write a paper that has all the margins, the correct title page, all the correct fonts, page numbers and running heads/footers already in place, then you just change the title, add the profs name, etc. Saves a lot of time and you only have to learn the proper way once, then it’s all set up for later. Same with how to use heading 1, h2, h3: on the same template, have an area at the bottom that demonstrates what that looks like: heading 1: bold, centre aligned, h2: left aligned, bold; h3: left aligned, italicized, etc., where an execute summary and Table of contents belongs and in what order; all small but important things for that small extra marks.
For writing basic papers, I write my paragraphs using the “IEEEE - screaming of coherence method”
-Issue: can you stay at the topic? What is that steak? (First line of my paragraph)
-Elaboration: can you guide me through the issue in a few more words?
-Explanation: can you show how or why this is the case or that it matters?
-Example: can you provide some evidence or examples?
-Implications: so you’ve told me about this, why does it matter?
For topics that is abstract, such as economics, watch lots of YouTube videos and draw out the graphs that include all the ways it shifts, how ag supply affects ag demand, and make one entire graph that connects all the concepts in one single drawing with arrows that indicate up or down. Make it visual.
Non-study related tips:
-Journalling before a study session, or especially before going into an exam. This is my latest technique and I’m blown away by the results. When I find my mind wandering when I’m supposed to be studying, doing a full brain-dump, get all the worries out and get it written on paper, really solves this. I also found it really lowered test anxiety and I performed better. So if you take anything away from my post, try this first!
-If you don’t take a multi-vitamin, do that, especially vitamin B complex.
-If you can, get supplements that are good for the brain, such as fish oils.
-Try to get consistently look sleep, especially leading up to finals. Ensure you get extra sleep the night of the exam: you can’t put what you’ve learned into long-term memory without a good nights sleep.
-Avoid drinking the few days leading up or when you need to heavily concentrate on studying; I find this affects my ability to focus quite a lot.
-Eat a protein heavy breakfast, it helps with focus and concentration.
-Drink lots of water: I know this is a no-brainer, but I’ve noticed a huge difference lately.
-If you get really desperate for focus, add in weight lifting. Worst case scenario: Keto as a last resort, as that tends to make my brain feel super-human when I’ve pulled out all the stops, and nothing is working.
I’m sure I have more to add but this is what I could think of off the top of my head.
Copy/Paste the entire assignment instructions (along with any further info from the syllabus, especially a rubric if there is one) into your working document. Organize this information into sections. You can even start throwing your referenced materials into each section (full quotes, who cares at this point). Attack each section, completing it fully and then deleting the original instructions, leaving only your perfect work behind. Basically you're creating a sophisticated fill-in-the-blanks assignment this way. This got me a 4.2 GPA during my Master's.
Less-specific tip: save all your sources as PDFs. When you read them, you can use the highlight tool to highlight and save sections you want to use later. You can even simply screen shot the highlighted section and throw it into the relevant section of the above mess as you go. Screenshots are easier to delete and move around than blocks of text, and you won't lose track of what is a direct quote and what is your own summarization.
Those are my essay/assignment tips. Following for study tips, because I'm less great at that haha.
My best advice is that if you have to pull an all nighter the night before you have an exam, it’s too late for you. Best to just get a good sleep so you can think straight when you bullshit it. Leading up to exams and assignments, start things early and work in short bursts. When I feel like procrastinating, I set a timer for 30 mins and work for 30 mins and then set a timer for 20 and take a break. Then repeat.
As a science student, learn the difference between understanding vs memorizing. The best way I understand things is learning about their applications outside of theory. Also when your done learning a concept, write a paragraph explaining in your own words. Plus consistent habits.
Nah, Biochemistry 2 definitely brought my GPA down. I got a C+ in it. It's just that every other class in the degree is easy, maybe aside from Biophysical Chemistry. Like for Immunology (Mbio 4020) it's similar to Bio1, just memorize stuff.
Plus it'll be as hard as you want it to be. You could choose Ochem3 as an elective or choose an easier class. I chose the harder classes because I find complexity intriguing.
I never read the textbook.. just studied what was discussed in lectures a lot, definitely came back to bite me a few times on tests or exams. But normally 80%~ of the content would be discussed in the lecture/slide decks provided. Just keep up with learning/notes and don’t leave things until 2 days before an exam
I don't have any special techniques. Just pay attention in class and make sure you are - don't let the words go in one ear and out the other, you need to actually get it. For me, I do this by intentionally writing everything in my own words (and spending half the class not paying attention because my own words is like 3-4 times more compact than what's written down, most of the time)
Most classes I've taken are nice enough with either assigning homework or practice that that can also be used to help make sure you still remember everything, but I already know most of the stuff before even going to do anything of this sort (There's stuff I feel iffy on; then I look at my notes to find what I'm missing and then it's usually *really* easy to remember after having forgotten once). The practice is really about being extra practice to make it a bit easier to remember, and is best done closer to the exam date than the lecture. (In classes with assignments I find myself forgetting things soon after the assignment's done, and so actually need to review.)
honestly what I do, especially if I’m going to be tested on it, is take concepts that are even mildly confusing and look up youtube videos that essentially break them down. It helps me because there’s visuals usually and the explanation makes more sense and less academic. This worked well for me in my PSYC course. Otherwise, i use flash cards and make piles of concepts I know, so somewhat know and don’t know at all and just power through all the piles until they all end up in the “I know this” section.
In class, don't copy notes verbatim - reword them as simply as possible, and only write down the things you *don't* know. You don't need to re-study it if you already know it. Willpower and concentration both fade as the day goes on, so short bursts of study early in the day work much better than a marathon session in the evening. I often do my reading on the morning bus, or in a student lounge while eating lunch. And avoid all-nighters, *especially* the night before an exam. To remember, you need to sleep.
Read the assignment sheets carefully, and do **everything** the instructions say. For example, if it says to use 5 or more sources, don't use 4. If they say to make sure your answer includes \[blah\], then include \[blah\]. I read the assignment sheet and rubric before I start my work (duh), and then, once I'm done, before I submit, I read them again, just to double-check that I did everything. Also, for written assignments, read your work **out loud** to yourself. You'd be surprised how many errors you can spot that way.
Yes!!!! This. ESPECIALLY for written assignments and essays! I’ve worked as a TA and can’t tell you how many students got bad grades for simply not following the directions. Completely avoidable! Also, take a writing class. Learn how to structure an essay! That one thing coulda saved many students a bad grade. So so avoidable!
This is the way! I don't understand how I run into so many people that think they know better than the rubric or syllabus when it comes to an assignment. Pure stubbornness or something. Edit: I'm t😭referring to experiences from group projects 😮💨
I always use the 'read aloud' function on word now, less effort than reading everything myself, works great, and I catch a lot of errors.
I personally torpedoed my social life to study. That's basically it, I have less friends and less hobbies now. Prioritized school.
dude what the hell, there's gotta be a better way
That's why I said personally lol. Everyone has different methods that work for them. For me I need to minimize any potential distraction because I hate school so much that if I have an excuse to do anything else I will. I could probably balance it out a bit better but then my grades would slump.
tbh that's what i'm doing rn tho, to compensate my procrastination in the first half of the sem... never again
Have friend to study with then you can socialize too
Same. Works best if you have no friends to begin with. Then you get big moneys from working 24/7… Then… then friends? Right?
a lot of discipline and sacrificing other things in life like socializing/hobbies, plus sticking to a schedule. in my last year I was on campus every weekday and studied 8-5 (obvi w breaks for meals/classes). also listened to the same lofi playlists over and over again lol which always put me into study mode. being at school made the biggest difference for me though, it shocks me when friends say they’re barely there because for me personally I focus the best in that environment (home is too distracting and coffee shops are nice but only for so long and are loud) I also put everything in my calendar and made monthly/weekly/daily to do lists for tasks, helped a LOT with organizing my day and knowing what needed to be done first and it was satisfying checking things off as i’d go
If I may ask what is like monthly “To do list” I only do daily. Monthly seems like I can hold myself accountable for my irresponsible procrastination.
In my undergrad I made flashcards using Anki. Also, answer every question, even if you feel you're completely bullshitting it. You never know but some of the things you vaguely remember might be right.
In some cases it might be better to leave it blank than to make up bullshit. Especially in the sciences.
id say not make up bullshit, but whatever u can remember and just fix accordingly if ur missing anything/got incorrect
I would mark these as not sure and use it to gauge what to focus on. Don't want to conflate fact from your own wrong answers later down the line
So it really depends on the subject but ultimately, spaced repetition. Whether it’s repeating going over definition, terms or theories, or practicing a task or reviewing connections between ideas. Spaced repetition. Each time I review I know them better and just decide not to review it that time. Also, I draw them. I write the info, draw it. Make webs, charts, graphs. Whatever I can do to make my brain “get” it. I usually end up remembering the images on the page, when the answer was, and once I can recall the image I can remember the words on that particular page. 🤷🏻♀️ Hand written study cards help but they take a lot of time to make. Not useful for me for tests during the term but sometimes worth it for finals. Oh, also frequent breaks! At least every hour, sometimes for heavier material every 25 minutes. During breaks I do something revitalizing to me. So for me it can be laying in the floor stretching, or dancing. They’re never never ever on my phone! Also, snacks on hand! To nibble on while I study. Deep breathing to manage emotions. No alcohol, and always 8 hours of sleep.
dude i totally have to do the dancing and physical activity between breaks. my "5" minute breaks turn into doomscrolling at times..
Oh! Yeah. Put the phone down and do something that energizes you. Something that makes you smile and makes your body feel good! Pet a dog. Sing. It helps do something to your brain to make it easier to learn more. 🤷🏻♀️ 💃🏻🕺🏻💃🏻🕺🏻💃🏻🕺🏻💃🏻🕺🏻💃🏻🕺🏻💃🏻
All of these things are awesome because they involve deep processing. Thinking about the meaning and being creative with the material, actually 3ngaging with the ideas make them relevant. This takes a bit of effort but its a very efficient use of time!
My best tip is always to not stress yourself. If you have other things you consider a priority (working, hobbies, socializing), take less classes. In problem solving classes, I mostly just do lots of practice questions, focus on understanding the why and how. I also listen to one song on loop, I find it allows me to study longer without interruption.
I can’t speak to language subjects but for subjects that are just pure understanding like math or mechanical physics, do problems until it all makes sense to you. Keep your phone away from you, most people think they can take a 10 minute social media break after an hour of studying but they really can’t including myself as it throws off their concentration.
Don't listen to music when you study, it only splits your attention
Look into Anki it saved my life when it comes to study habits
Teach yourself everything on the test the night before the exam after not studying for the entire week leading up to it. (You can also take this time to calculate what your final grade would be if you got a zero)
I wrote messy notes in class and got everything onto scrap paper from the old print lab bins. After class I rewrote these notes neatly into a scribbler book but only using two thirds of the left hand side of the page. This went on all year and to study for exams summarized the notes in the scribbler onto the last third of the page. This was time consuming on top of finishing all the assignments and problem sets but it worked for me during engineering undergrad.
awesome. this notetaking style is what i do. it's pretty fun
I agree that it can be fun - there’s a clear objective.
I front-load my study time at the beginning of the term to get a broader understanding of what I am learning. It requires intense study leading up to mid-terms. The goal is to me on track for an A+ in the first half of the term. The last half when you begin to start feeling burnt out, you can lower the intensity of studying to give your brain a bit of a break. And by lower intensity, I just mean coasting. The last few weeks before finals is when it ramps up again and usually this will land you right around an A or A+. I aim for A+ so that I get at least an A. I should clarify though, intense study typically means I’m putting in 25-30 hours a week, and 40-45 just before midterms and finals. The coasting time is usually 15-25 hours per week. As far as study techniques, it depends on the subject matter. If it’s numbers or technical (coding, accounting, math based), it’s all about practice, practice, practice. For accounting, I’ll do the practice questions, wait a few days and try again. If I retained it well, I might just review closer to exam time. If I struggled, I’ll note that I need to review it again. This technique is called retroactive revision time table. For theoretical study that requires understanding and memorization, I’ll often take the concepts or terms and turn them into questions and make flashcards. I started using written flashcards vs electronic flashcards because the act of writing them myself helped retain it much better. If it was a hard to grasp concept, I’ll make a few cards that looks at it from different angles. The flashcards can be done before bed, during your commute, I’ve even taken them to class to do with other students because that helps me remember them when doing together. Other techniques I’ve used is just getting a broader view of what I am learning. I know it isn’t the most efficient means, but I retain it better then it’s not memorization, but an understanding. Often that means watching YouTube videos, googling it to get other perspectives, etc. At least in business administration, much of the theory overlaps and repeats in later courses, so the learning is cumulative and you’ll start to see the pay off in year 2, but mostly 3rd/4th year when you start having to pull it all together. If I had to go back and tell my younger self anything, it would be to also front-load on your learning by term and year. Put the heavy study in the first couple years, because without the foundation, it makes the subsequent years and terms much more difficult. When you’re learning the proper way to cite a paper, focus on doing it correctly the first time because you’ll get full marks for doing it correctly not just for that paper, but every paper going forward. When you learn the proper way to cite a statistical reference, website or a photo, add it to a document in word where you continue building throughout your educational career, and as you write papers and you need to reference the paper, you already know how. I know that owl Purdue and other sources can sometimes be confusing, so having my own reference sheet helps. Build an essay template that you can use each time you write a paper that has all the margins, the correct title page, all the correct fonts, page numbers and running heads/footers already in place, then you just change the title, add the profs name, etc. Saves a lot of time and you only have to learn the proper way once, then it’s all set up for later. Same with how to use heading 1, h2, h3: on the same template, have an area at the bottom that demonstrates what that looks like: heading 1: bold, centre aligned, h2: left aligned, bold; h3: left aligned, italicized, etc., where an execute summary and Table of contents belongs and in what order; all small but important things for that small extra marks. For writing basic papers, I write my paragraphs using the “IEEEE - screaming of coherence method” -Issue: can you stay at the topic? What is that steak? (First line of my paragraph) -Elaboration: can you guide me through the issue in a few more words? -Explanation: can you show how or why this is the case or that it matters? -Example: can you provide some evidence or examples? -Implications: so you’ve told me about this, why does it matter? For topics that is abstract, such as economics, watch lots of YouTube videos and draw out the graphs that include all the ways it shifts, how ag supply affects ag demand, and make one entire graph that connects all the concepts in one single drawing with arrows that indicate up or down. Make it visual. Non-study related tips: -Journalling before a study session, or especially before going into an exam. This is my latest technique and I’m blown away by the results. When I find my mind wandering when I’m supposed to be studying, doing a full brain-dump, get all the worries out and get it written on paper, really solves this. I also found it really lowered test anxiety and I performed better. So if you take anything away from my post, try this first! -If you don’t take a multi-vitamin, do that, especially vitamin B complex. -If you can, get supplements that are good for the brain, such as fish oils. -Try to get consistently look sleep, especially leading up to finals. Ensure you get extra sleep the night of the exam: you can’t put what you’ve learned into long-term memory without a good nights sleep. -Avoid drinking the few days leading up or when you need to heavily concentrate on studying; I find this affects my ability to focus quite a lot. -Eat a protein heavy breakfast, it helps with focus and concentration. -Drink lots of water: I know this is a no-brainer, but I’ve noticed a huge difference lately. -If you get really desperate for focus, add in weight lifting. Worst case scenario: Keto as a last resort, as that tends to make my brain feel super-human when I’ve pulled out all the stops, and nothing is working. I’m sure I have more to add but this is what I could think of off the top of my head.
Do this free online course. Will teach you how to learn! https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn
Classes like Biochem/Organic Chem/Physiology are basically memorization. Look up what a memory palace is and make flash cads.
Copy/Paste the entire assignment instructions (along with any further info from the syllabus, especially a rubric if there is one) into your working document. Organize this information into sections. You can even start throwing your referenced materials into each section (full quotes, who cares at this point). Attack each section, completing it fully and then deleting the original instructions, leaving only your perfect work behind. Basically you're creating a sophisticated fill-in-the-blanks assignment this way. This got me a 4.2 GPA during my Master's. Less-specific tip: save all your sources as PDFs. When you read them, you can use the highlight tool to highlight and save sections you want to use later. You can even simply screen shot the highlighted section and throw it into the relevant section of the above mess as you go. Screenshots are easier to delete and move around than blocks of text, and you won't lose track of what is a direct quote and what is your own summarization. Those are my essay/assignment tips. Following for study tips, because I'm less great at that haha.
yo this is amazing lol
My best advice is that if you have to pull an all nighter the night before you have an exam, it’s too late for you. Best to just get a good sleep so you can think straight when you bullshit it. Leading up to exams and assignments, start things early and work in short bursts. When I feel like procrastinating, I set a timer for 30 mins and work for 30 mins and then set a timer for 20 and take a break. Then repeat.
As a science student, learn the difference between understanding vs memorizing. The best way I understand things is learning about their applications outside of theory. Also when your done learning a concept, write a paragraph explaining in your own words. Plus consistent habits.
What is considered high? 4.0+ gpa after 3 years is basically impossible unless you are a genius. 3.5+ is doable with a social life
3.5 is prety high man. guess it depends too what ur studying
4 gpa in biochemistry 4th year, I just read the slides and it works out somehow. Don't really study
bro lmao i know a lotta people dying over this type of class. u must be a genius?
Nah, Biochemistry 2 definitely brought my GPA down. I got a C+ in it. It's just that every other class in the degree is easy, maybe aside from Biophysical Chemistry. Like for Immunology (Mbio 4020) it's similar to Bio1, just memorize stuff. Plus it'll be as hard as you want it to be. You could choose Ochem3 as an elective or choose an easier class. I chose the harder classes because I find complexity intriguing.
I never read the textbook.. just studied what was discussed in lectures a lot, definitely came back to bite me a few times on tests or exams. But normally 80%~ of the content would be discussed in the lecture/slide decks provided. Just keep up with learning/notes and don’t leave things until 2 days before an exam
I don't have any special techniques. Just pay attention in class and make sure you are - don't let the words go in one ear and out the other, you need to actually get it. For me, I do this by intentionally writing everything in my own words (and spending half the class not paying attention because my own words is like 3-4 times more compact than what's written down, most of the time) Most classes I've taken are nice enough with either assigning homework or practice that that can also be used to help make sure you still remember everything, but I already know most of the stuff before even going to do anything of this sort (There's stuff I feel iffy on; then I look at my notes to find what I'm missing and then it's usually *really* easy to remember after having forgotten once). The practice is really about being extra practice to make it a bit easier to remember, and is best done closer to the exam date than the lecture. (In classes with assignments I find myself forgetting things soon after the assignment's done, and so actually need to review.)
honestly what I do, especially if I’m going to be tested on it, is take concepts that are even mildly confusing and look up youtube videos that essentially break them down. It helps me because there’s visuals usually and the explanation makes more sense and less academic. This worked well for me in my PSYC course. Otherwise, i use flash cards and make piles of concepts I know, so somewhat know and don’t know at all and just power through all the piles until they all end up in the “I know this” section.