5 things I wish someone told me about studying in college before I wasted 2 years figuring it out

Transferring from high school to college studying is brutal and nobody prepares you for it. Here's what actually works after a lot of trial and error.

1. Re-reading your notes is not studying. Your brain is on autopilot when you re-read. Close your notes and try to explain the material from memory. Whatever you cant explain is what you actually need to study. Everything else is wasted time.
2. Short daily sessions beat long weekend grinds. 15-20 min per subject every day is more effective than a 6 hour sunday library session. Your brain retains more when you spread it out.
3. Stop making flashcards you never use. If you spend 2 hours making a deck and 10 min actually using it you wasted 2 hours on arts and crafts. The making part isnt learning. The testing part is.
4. If you cant teach it you dont know it. Try explaining every concept out loud like youre teaching someone. If you stumble or cant simplify it you need more work on that topic. If you can nail it move on.
5. Use tools that test you not tools that organize you. I wasted so much time on notion dashboards and color coded systems. Now I just use learnzy .io upload a topic and it gives you a short lesson then quizzes you on it until you actually get it. Way less setup way more actual learning. The testing part is what most study tools skip and its the only part that matters.

None of this is complicated but nobody tells you this stuff. You just show up to college and theyre like good luck figure it out.