A lot of college students complain about how tough midterms and finals are, or how little time they have studying, given the enormous volume of material they need to master their exams. Our complaints can be justified, although they can be mitigated by eliminating some thoughts which are far too common.

1. “I don’t know where to begin.”

Make a list of all the things you have to do. Break your workload down into manageable chunks. Prioritize. Schedule your time realistically. Begin studying early, with an hour or two per day, and slowly build as the exam approaches.

2. ‘I’ve got so much to study and so little time."

Preview. Survey your syllabus, reading the material, and notes. Identify the most important topics emphasized, and areas still not understood. Previewing saves time, by helping you organize and focus in on the main topics.

3. “This stuff is so dry, I can’t even stay awake reading it”

Get actively involved with the text as you read it. Ask yourself, “what is important to remember about this section?” Take notes or underline key concepts. Discuss the material with others in your class. Stay on the offensive.

4. “I read it. I understand it. But I just can’t get it to sink in.”

Elaborate. We remember best the things that are most meaningful to us. As you are reading, elaborate upon new information with your own examples. Try to integrate what you’re studying with what you already know. You will be able to remember new material better if you can link it to something that’s already meaningful to you.

Mnemonics: Associate new information with something familiar.

5. “I guess I understand it.”

Test yourself. Make questions about key sections in notes or reading, then examine the relationships between concepts and sections. Often, simply by changing section headings you can generate many effective questions.

6. “There’s too much to remember”

Organize. Information is recalled better if it is represented in an organized framework that will make retrieval more systematic. Write chapter outlines of summaries; emphasize relationships between sections. Try grouping information into categories or hierarchies, where possible. Use information mapping or draw up a matrix to organize and interrelate material.

7. “I knew it a minute ago”

Review. After reading a section, try to recall the information contained in it. Try answering the questions you made up for that section. If you cannot recall enough, then re-read portions you had trouble remembering. The more time you spend studying, the more you tend to recall. Even after the point where information can be perfectly recalled, further study makes the material less likely to be forgotten entirely. How you organize and integrate new information is still more important than how much time you spend studying.

Avoid the mistakes most college students make. Plan your semester and your week. Read and take notes on your the cocepts before class. Get help from friends, tutors, and your professor. Learn by working with the information rather than reviewing it over and over. And study in shorter more frequent bursts. If you avoid those common study mistakes, everything will go better.