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I love studying. Or... well, I love the idea of studying. I'm the best student in the beginning of the year because I'm still maintaining the illusion of productivity. I get a bit lazy later with studying. However, I have learned from my own mistakes plenty of times. If you want to do well, it is better not to just memorize the material the night before. It's both harder and easier in college, because the want to study comes in classes that correlate with your major. The required classes, like the maths and histories, maybe aren't as fun to take because you don't need them for your biology or English degree. So, how do you make studying easy (and fun)? 

photo; http://universityandme.info

Well, you have to start with a plan. Say I have a test in my British literature class and I already know some of the options for the discussion questions. First, I have to make a list of the way I should plan -- it does work best if you snack and plan at the same time, as in the picture to the left. With literature, I like to reread material if I can; I always reread poetry and short stories that are less than twenty pages. If you aren't an English major, there is no use in you rereading all the material unless you feel the need -- or if you never read it at all. You should always read the material that will be on your test, even if you didn't read it for the class discussion. So in making my plan, I would start with rereading the poetry and go over the notes that I made on it, be they in the book or on paper. As I reread, if I find something conducive to my discussion questions, I would plan to mark it with a post-it tab so that I can find it later. Then I would plan to go back to my tabs and make notes under the question options so that I can map out an answer to those questions. Now, that I've planned out my studying, I can move on to the actual studying. 

photo; http://hscya-later.tumblr.com

Believe it or not, studying actually begins in your classroom. When you go over material in class, it is extremely important to listen to everything. No one can take notes the way you do. Everyone writes notes differently and everyone understand their notes best. I am so anal about my notes and I take notes differently in each class. I write down everything. Other people may not have to. I take obsessive notes in my history class and I know people that listen and don't have to study. It depends on the person. However, you should always be sure to mark parts of text that your professor mentions because those are usually what you want to know, what will show up later. Take a hint from the photo to the right. The more you mark in your book, the better. You'll be thankful for highlighting that line when you get asked to explain its significance later.

Beyond those things, like making a plan for studying and studying along the way, I don't know of many other ways that works for me. I'm horribly guilty of studying the night before and trying to swallow as much information as possible so that the next day I can spit it all out onto my test. I'm working on not doing that and maybe you need to as well. If so, let me know if these help you. I'll definitely be putting them more into practice in the last eight weeks of my sophomore year.

catch you later,
Karleigh

"Always go too far because that's where you'll find the truth." // Albert Camus