Try writing things down as you go. It helps you study later on, anyway.

Read each paragraph and write down the purpose of that paragraph. For example, "Mosquitoes bite people and can spread diseases. The CDC warns us that mosquitoes are dangerous. They can spread malaria and other diseases. Mosquitoes are dangerous, and mosquito bites can itch like any other bug bite."

You would simply write, "CDC warns us that mosquitoes can spread malaria and other diseases." You don't need to write down that mosquitoes make itchy bites. That's useless information.

Then when you go back to studying for exams, you'll have a pretty good "cheat sheet."

Once you're done with all of that, make a more condensed cheat sheet. Remove any redundant information or combine sentences of yours to make things shorter.

The trick is, though... Try not to memorize anything unless it's dictionary words. Instead, focus on understanding what the material is about. If you understand it, then you don't really need to study all that hard, because there's nothing to "memorize." At least that's my experience.

i've experienced difficulty reading for the past few years, if not longer. i'm not sure whether it's because of my mental health (episodes have become stronger in the past few years) or because of meds (am on five at the moment). i used to read a lot as a child and teenager, but now i rarely read, and trying to concentrate is horrible. the suggestion of reading a paragraph and writing down the gist isn't really realistic sometimes - my eyes skip through each sentence so i have to read a couple of sentences again and again just to comprehend them. i'm also studying, and a lot of the time it feels like there's no point...