If you’re learning from a textbook, it may be organized like this already.

For example, if you’re studying math, try making it a goal to nail down basic algebra by next week. Then, you can move on to tougher concepts, like calculus. You can also split things up by chapters in a textbook.

For example, instead of writing down, “The food chain is a hierarchical series of organisms each dependent on the next as a source of food,” you could write, “Food chain: series of organisms eating each other. ” Try developing a shorthand that’s easy to write down and understand. For example, if you’re learning about chemistry concepts, you could shorten catalyst to cat, chromatography to chrom, or stoichiometry to stoich. If you’re taking notes on how to do something sequential, like how to solve a math problem, write your notes down in steps. That way, it will be easier to remember how to apply those same steps to different problems. [4] X Expert Source Daron CamAcademic Tutor Expert Interview. 29 May 2020.

Writing your notes out by hand can take a little longer than typing them up, so it’s important to write in phrases and use shorthand.

If you’re in higher education, go to your teacher’s office hours to get help throughout the school year.

Studies show that trying to cram a bunch of knowledge into your mind right before a test will only help you retain it in the short term. If you’re limited on time, you might not be able to spread your studying over multiple days. If that’s the case, just make sure you take lots of breaks to give your brain a rest.

If you can teach a subject to someone else, you’re probably pretty close to mastering it.

After you’re done, go over the information one more time to make sure you got it right. If you missed anything or struggled in one area, go over it a few more times.

Oftentimes, people connect subjects to what they’re doing career-wise. If you’re learning chemistry, maybe you’ll use it when you work in a lab later on. If you’re studying math, maybe you’ll crunch numbers at an accounting firm in the future.

If you’re learning the order of operations in math (parentheses, exponents, multiplication, division, addition, subtraction), you could use the mnemonic device PEMDAS.

You can also ask a fellow classmate to check your answers for you.