Retain your readings (and lectures)
Well… Perhaps, more easily retain them. Learning is always effortful, but here is a way to make easy gains, learning and understanding material as you do readings or attend lectures. It's all gold, but I've italicised a couple of brilliant ones — low energy, but great potential payoff for long-term learning, retaining, and understanding. Then you can be further ahead with essays and exams.
From Carolina Kuepper-Tetzel at the University of Glasgow:
Consolidating Class Content
Answering questions on [your readings or] the class/lecture content from memory and explaining concepts to yourself or a peer are two ways to study (find more here: Effective Study Strategies). It strengthens your memory for the material more than simply rereading, highlighting the material, or copying notes from one format to a (prettier) format. Start each study session by recalling content from memory by explaining theories, findings, and concepts to yourself or to your peers. The activities below should help to get you started with this.
Look at the different classes you are taught and for each generate at least 2 questions that capture essential ideas of each lecture. Of course, you can generate more questions.
Think back on how questions were phrased on your previous exams and try to come up with similar questions.
Questions that ask to connect different ideas with each other, to elaborate on an idea and provide… evidence, or to criticise a theory or finding, are preferred because they require you to show deeper understanding of the topics.
Populate a resource [ie, keep a Word document] with the questions you come up with in order to share them with your peers.
Schedule time in your diary during each week for generating questions and adding questions.
Schedule time every week to go over a few questions - to recall answers or explain concepts. You can do this on your own or as a group.
Here is an activity you can do on your own, but also with a peer. Look at all the questions you have available. For each class topic, pick three questions to answer (in the first attempt answer from memory only - without looking at notes or material):
One question that is easy because you know the answer to it. Write the answer down and explain it to another peer or yourself.
One question that you partly know the answer, but to get it completely right you will have to check your materials or ask a peer.
One question you don't know the answer to. Check your materials and/or talk to a peer and find out the answer together.
If you are up for it, find study buddies to go over the material together. This is most beneficial once each of you have already gained some knowledge.
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I found this at Carolina Kuepper-Tetzel's Time Management & Study Skills For Students at Glasgow Uni. She is a regular contributor to the Learning Scientists blog posts, where I learn a lot of cool stuff on learning science. The Italics are mine.