Study suggestion #2: Make study notes in lectures

When you think about it, a lot of time is spent during the process of "studying" just rewriting and organising information. Quite often very little revision is going on; you're automatically transcribing from your notes without absorbing anything. For some subjects, multitasking in lectures can save a massive amount of time; however this is only possible in less conceptual subjects. Where the content is easy to understand the first time the professor explains it, it is fairly easy to turn into concise notes as they do so (especially if you have a printout of their powerpoint slides in front of you as well).

In 'information-heavy' subjects, such as physiology, I start making my study notes as soon as I get into the lecture theatre, and even if something complex comes up during the lecture and I get behind, I will already have a head start on the notes. If there's time, I'll go straight to the library and finish them off while the ideas are still fresh in my mind. There's an added bonus: I don't come across a scribbled note a few weeks later which says something like "regulatory activity", which no longer means anything to me. Now my study time is spent actually revising, rather than frantically making notes as it was in first year.