FIND A QUIET SPOT. Before you sit down to study, make sure you're camping out in a place that will be comfortable and quiet. It's no good trying to study in a chaotic environment; you'll never absorb the material when there's too many distractions. And for heaven's sake, turn off the TV ... unless of course you prefer to have a little light background music when you study. Just be sure you have your back to the tube so you are not tempted to watch.
BE AN ACTIVE READER. If you will have to recall information from a text book or novel for your test, it will be most helpful for you to go back over your readings. When you do this, take care to be an active reader. First, look over the contents of the book or individual chapters, making a mental note of the subtitles and chapter headings. This preview will help give your brain a mental road map; you'll know what to look forward to reading. If you're allowed to write in your book, underline the important sentences or make stars next to major paragraphs. When you go back over the book later, you'll know to refer to these passages. Another good way to be an active reader is to make notes in the margins that summarize what you've just read in a chapter. Doing all of these things will keep you engaged with the material and make it easier for you to recall later.
RE-WRITE NOTES. Ok, so you already took notes in class. But unless you are an ace at shorthand or your teacher speaks slowly, chances are that your notes are somewhat messy and maybe even unorganized. The act of transcribing helps many people memorize material, so take a second look at your class notes and re-organize them with a re-write.
MAKE FLASH CARDS. In some cases, particularly when vocabulary words or science terms need to be memorized, it's helpful to make flash cards. Get yourself some index cards and write a term on one side and answer on the opposite side. The act of writing these cards will help you study, but to get the most mileage out of them, quiz yourself until you know them backwards and forwards. Find yourself a study buddy, and have that person quiz you too. Reciting the material out loud and having to explain it to another person will also help with recall.
USE MNEMONICS. When you have to memorize lists, mnemonic devices can be really helpful. A mnemonic is simply a series of words (sometimes a rhyme) that help you remember long lists. Take this one, for example: My Very Educated Mother Just Sent Us Nine Pizzas. It's actually a mnemonic for the solar system. Take the first letter of each word, and you've got a fun way to remember the names of the planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. There are a lot of creative people out there, so just Google your subject and you may find that someone has already created a mnemonic for it. If there isn't an existing mnemonic, you can make one up for yourself.