1. Go To Class
   

   Seriously. This should be obvious, especially when each hour in class can cost you between $15-$50 dollars in tuition! Not only do you get your money’s worth, but it can raise your grades up to 15% just by going to class. Plenty of students try the “We aren’t going over anything important today anyway.” or “I’ll just read the chapter we’re covering”. This is a bad mentality. First, hearing your teacher explain something could give you a new view on the information, or help you understand something the book makes oh-so confusing. Second, your professors explain things in their own words, or work problems they like. This is incredibly important considering they write the exams. So go to class. Seriously.

2. Go Over Your Notes After Class
   

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   This one never sounds very appealing. It’s understandable, you just got out of that class, why would you want to spend any more time on that subject? Within 24 hours after learning something your memory of it starts to fade. If you go over them right after class it helps you commit them to long term memory. It helps even more to rewrite them; class notes for the majority of students are often very rushed and unorganized. Rewriting your notes allows you to not only relearn the information (helping you retain it better), but allows you to organized it while you still remember what the incredible important 4 squiggles with a random word you scratched at the end of class actually meant.

3. Read The Book
   

   Teacher are supplemental to the book. Most of them are working under the assumption that you’ve done the required reading, and their goal is to help you further understand it. Not to mention that you paid the inflated textbook price, you may as well read it. The is often a lot clearer and more organized than your professor, not to mention it was the product of years and years of work. Your teacher probably writes his lectures while drinking beer and watching South Park. I know I do.

4. Talk To Your Teacher
   

   Not only are they a wealth of knowledge on the subject your studying, but lets face it: It never hurts to get your professor to like you. If they know you, and know you put forth the effort for the class they will be a lot more likely to let you make up the test you accidentally slept through. So many students don’t seem to comprehend the concept of Office Hours. It is your professors putting aside time in their day for the sole purpose of helping you. If you have a concept that you are fuzzy on, don’t Wikipedia it, go to office hours. Wikipedia lies. Professors usually don’t…at least about the class material.

5. Practice Being Tested
   

   After you have been awesome and diligent and learned all the wonderful material on the test you need to practice being tested. The information can only take you so far if you don’t know how to think about it the right way on the exam. Your text book probably has examples, reviews and quizzes. Try to utilize those to start thinking critically about the information. Maybe your professor gave reviews, practice tests, or work out in-class problems. These are even better than the textbooks, because these are a hint at the types of questions you’ll see on the exam. Get a study group and practice quizzing each other. Just do something other than rote memorization!

Getting good grades takes effort. You have to put in the time, but it really isn’t a impossible amount of effort. A few hours a week for a class isn’t going to get in the way of your life…