Be selective and study in depth. The more classes you’ve
managed to miss, the more selective you need to be in organizing your
cram session. You can’tstudy it all. So you must identify—as best
you can—what topics you are sure will be on the test. Then study
only those. It’s better in this case to know a lot about a little rather
than a little about a lot. You may get lucky and pick the three topics
the three essays cover!
Massage your memory. Use every memory technique you’ve
learned (and the additional ones in Improve Your Memory) to maximize
what you’re able to retain in your short-term memory.
Know when to give up. When you can’t remember your name or
focus on the book in front of you, give up and get some sleep.
Consider an early morning rather than a late-night cram, espe-
cially if you’re a “morning” person. I’ve found it more effective to
go to bed and get up early rather than go to bed late and get up
exhausted.
Spend the first few minutes of the test writing down whatever
you remember but are afraid you’ll forget.
When in Doubt, Ask
Yes, there are teachers who test you on the most mundane details of
their course, requiring you to review every book, every note, every
scribble.
I don’t think most teachers work that way. You will more than likely
be tested on some subset of the course— those particular topics or
problems or facts or figures the teacher believes most important.
How do you know what those are? To put it bluntly, how do you
know what’s going to be on the test?
Teachers give many clues. In general, the more often you see or hear
the same material, the more important it probably is and the more
likely it is that it will show up on a test.
182 How to Study