Train your brain to gain.

You have to make your own condensed notes. You learn from MAKING them. A lot of thinking goes into deciding what to include and exclude. You develop your own system of abbreviations and memory methods for the information.

The teacher is a catalyst to convert information from a high energy state (list of facts) to a low energy state (visual concept associated with known concepts).

Ambient sounds, especially with words, occupy about 5-10% of your intellectual bandwidth.By wearing ear protectors, you acoustically isolate yourself. This freed up bandwidth can now be focused on the desired task.It's a great deal. Just put on some earmuffs and you become 5-10% smarter.

Prereading is a game changer. It changed my life. Everyone is smarter when they have seen the material before. You will be too