Take care of yourself. The first, most important, and often most difficult step to take in taking care of yourself is to make sure you get adequate sleep. If you are only sleeping for four or five hours a night, rushing to class, and then struggling to stay awake, you simply won't be able to make sense of or retain the information that is being taught. So do what you have to do to get adequate sleep. Take naps, change your schedule, drop some of your activities. You will enjoy your entire life more if you are not constantly tired. The second factor in taking care of yourself is in watching what you eat. Over-consumption of caffeinated drinks, junk food, and sugar will harm your body more than fuel it. You can become dehydrated, which drastically affects how your brain functions, if you are not drinking enough water. Too much sugar and junk food may leave you feeling full without providing adequate nutrition for your body, all of which causes physical stress, sickness, a weakened immune system, and reduced brain function.

Take notes in class, and review your notes at least twice. The best way to review them is to do so very soon after the class, when the material is still fresh on your mind. Use a highlighter or colored pen to mark the important terms. Add more explanation and details if you need to, while you can still remember what those cryptic statements in your notebook mean. Review your notes again later, within the next week, to help the material make a transition from your short-term memory to your long-term storage. If you find that taking notes in class is too distracting, you simply can't write fast enough, or you are a very strong aural learner, use a tape recorder instead of taking notes. Record the lecture, and listen to it again once or twice during the next week.

Make the most of your textbooks. Don't just open them up and read the assignments. First, review the index. Flip through the chapter and look for the summarizing paragraphs; they are usually located at the beginning and/or end of each chapter. Look for key terms (they might be in a bolded text, used as a heading, or defined in the sidebar.) You can often save time by simply familiarizing yourself with the structure of your textbooks before you get to reading assignments. Then, when you do move to the actual assignments, you will get through them much quicker because you will already be familiar with the important concepts. This will also help you to retain the information shared in class, as you remember what you understand much better than you remember what is meaningless.

Do some independent research on the subjects you are studying, even if they do not seem particularly interesting to you. Talk to your teacher about how he/she got involved in the topic, what is most interesting about it, or other questions you might have. They don't necessarily have to relate to the latest lecture or chapter assigned, just something that will help you to appreciate the subject more. Talk to other people who are involved in some aspect of the subject. Find out how it applies in practical life, in scientific research, in culture, in your life. The more something means to you and the more connections it has to "real life," the more memorable and interesting it will become.

Study for one hour every weekday, whether you have assignments due or not. This is probably the best tip of all. If you consistently dedicate at least one hour every day to reviewing notes, reading assignments, studying, and getting a head start on assignments due, you will avoid the last-minute rush, the cramming, and the anxiety that often causes students to lose more information than they retain.