The following is a list of study habits that have been found to work best for most students. You are welcome to modify them in any way to better suit yourself, but try them before you modify them. They really work!
1. Read the text. I know! Nobody reads the text because all of the exam questions come from the notes. Well, technically, you're almost right. But without the text, you'll have only a limited knowledge of the subject and heaven help you if I ask the question a little bit different from the way I gave it to you in lecture. The first time you read the text, just skim over it for content (the way you would read a newspaper or magazine. The brain works by first setting up a compartment for your new data and this step does that.
2. Read the text a second time. This time for content. You may use any number of strategies at this point to label the key points. This could include underlining, highlighting, copying into notebooks, copying onto index cards or dictating into a tape recorder; whateever works best for you. My own personal preference is index cards, because you can always stuff a few in your pocket and review them any time you have some free time available.
3. Read the key points one at a time. Turn away from your underlinings, cards, notes etc. and repeat and explain in your own words what you have read. Be hard on yourself here and ask a lot of difficult questions to yourself about what you have read and how it relates to the rest of the chapter.
4. Go over your lecture notes. Compare them to what you have read and learned in the text. Match them up. If there's something in the lecture notes that is not familiar to you, look over the chapter again to make sure you haven't missed it by mistake
5. Use the objectives in the course outline to test yourself. If you can't answer one of the objectives, you haven't covered the chapter properly and the best thing to do is go over the chapter again, identifying any missing key points