Hi, I'm a first year University student in a Political Science
Program, I seem to be having problems studying for the exams. The only
thing I do is read through chapters once then recap. I have two exams
left in a week, so my question is what is the best way to study lots
of text and lecture material for essay and short answer question
exams?

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Clarification of Question by samdaman-ga on 14 Apr 2006 17:01 PDT

thanks but...basically I still have to read the chapter all the way
through from begining to end...or is there a way to know what parts of
a page to read?

As a student, the best times of "mental alertness" for your brain are
from 10 AM to 12 noon, and from 8 PM to 9 PM.  Concentrate the
majority of your studying during those times.

EAT SALMON!  Seriously, Omega-3 Fatty Acids are vital and "brain food"
like fish will surely help improve mental capacity and concentration
ability.  I speak from experience, and I know it works, as my memory
was crappy enough already that I felt like an old man (I'm 22).

Also Ginko Biloba supplements of around 240 mg a day (NOT mcg, which
is micrograms so be sure to read the labels carefully).  Make sure its
a decent brand that's not from the dollar store, I got mine from
Walmart.  The dollar-store brands tend to not do anything to help, or
be in such a small quantity as to not offer any significant benefit. 
240 mg is much higher then recommended on the label, but it works well
enough for me.  YOU WILL GET HEADACHES for the first few days, this is
due to the increase in blood flow to the brain, so do some mental
puzzles, crosswords, play tetris or something similar, memory games
like card-matching, whatever.

The Nintendo DS recently has a game called "Brain Craze" that will
help strengthen minds through stimulation of logical thinking.

http://www.bruceeisner.com/mindware/2006/04/mind_age_for_ni.html

So basically something you can do while waiting in line, waiting for
lunch, whatever.

Do these, and try to focus on association.  Like if you were to think
of President Bush as a jackass, just put his face on a elephant being
kicked by a donkey (republicans being bashed by democrats).  Etc.

Hope this helps.
Till then.

Try these websites for guides to studying and test prep:

http://www.studygs.net/   and

http://www.ucc.vt.edu/stdysk/stdyhlp.html  especially this page:

http://www.ucc.vt.edu/stdysk/sq3r.html

I am the last person that can tell you how to study, but congratulations 
for asking and not coming here for the answers.

I am now one day and 6 chapters away from the exam now, is there any
way to learn everything I need to by then? Any advice is good at this
point. Thank you for your help everyone, I got a lot of work done at
the cottage and now back to the crazed city.

If I'm not too late I'd like to suggest what I do before exams. The
best thing I find to remember large quantities of information is to
skim read a paragraph/page/chapter to pick up the gist of what it is
about. Then I go back and reread the parts I saw relevant information
in and jot down a few notes.
At the end of each paragraph/page/chapter I then mindmap my notes:
(http://wiki.ehow.com/Make-a-Mind-Map)
I read through my mind map several times and then leave it for a few
hours. I then come back and try to write out my notes from memory and
then compare with my original notes for differences. If they are very
similar I just read the mindmap again and leave it for the day. If
not, after reading the mindmap again I come back a few hours later
again and repeat.

I hope that is of some help to you.