• If you need to cram, read upside down and aloud. As in, turn the paper upside down, not yourself lol. It’s slow, but it’s time efficient. You’ll focus more on what you’re actually reading/saying. It better than mindlessly staring at your books and repeating yourself quickly. This saved my ass many many times. If you get used to reading upside down, change your writing so that it’s still readable, but not crystal clear. Then continue reading upside down.
• If you procrastinate, don’t stay up late studying. Sleep early and wake up early. Try not to sleep in. Before you go to bed, review the main ideas/points/things you know that will be on the test for sure. But don’t spend too much time on this. Reviewing (don’t forget to do the method above) before bed helps you remember better.
• Don’t study what you already know very well. Focus on the weaker areas.
• Study in short, frequent sessions with lots of review. Don’t study for a long time the day before the test. Try to have multiple study sessions each day a couple weeks before the exam. Maybe 15 minutes at the most, 3-4 times a day. Break up what you need to study in sections.
• Highlight and paraphrase as you read. Then re-read what you highlighted and wrote as a review.

But you get the most out of studying if you prepare efficiently. Taking an extra 10 minutes a day to organize/rewrite your notes can cut study times drastically. Plus reviewing your notes everyday (only for 30 minutes at the most, I do 10 minutes after school and 10 before bed) even if you don’t have a test.

• Make lists or draw charts/diagrams/tables when you’re taking notes. Also, I find highlighting in different colors to be helpful in grouping different ideas.
• ORGANIZE. Combine your notes in one section, study guides altogether in the front, and sort out unneeded classwork. Color code different class materials and don’t use the same binder/notebook for two (or more) different classes.
• For math, I make my own cheat sheets. One has a list of formulas, another has steps to solve specific problems(each step is color coordinated to match the one on the whiteboard in the next tip), another has rules/proofs, etc.
• Get a whiteboard and talk yourself through solving problems. Use a different colored each step that matches the color on your cheat sheet. Take a picture of the board on your phone. Your phone is the best portable study guide if you take pictures of your notes and cheatsheet. Camscanner is a great app for taking pictures of notes. But do NOT throw your notes away, just keep them in a folder. One folder for each class so you don’t mix them up. Keep all the folders in a filebox (I use those expanding file things instead of folders to save space).
• For history, timelines are great. Then have a cheatsheet with info about each particular event. Don’t put too much detail in the minor event, focus on the important things.
• For languages, cheat sheets include: vocab page, conjugation page, and rules on sentence structure. Having a white board is godsend for languages as well! I do the method for math problems when I use my whiteboard. But instead of solving problems, it’s conjugations and sentence structure.
• For science, it varies on what you’re studying. At least have a vocab page.

via reddit