The only thing that worked for me was making sure I did not have to study for the test in the first place I would engage with the material when I was learning it and get interested in it for its own sake and the material became a part of me, so, as monkeybrains cleverly does, you could sing the song and the material would be there. Only I was interested in what I studied and would study other things about it and get a larger picture so I knew why we were assigned this part to study/be tested on at this time, etc. and I could relate that so the details were there or did not matter as much because I got the whole picture/idea (if writing an essay, for example, instead of doing multiple choice or short answer).