I think I should finally start learning.

I want to finish this year very closely to full grade for all classes.. But.. how do you study? Are you supposed to read what you've written and then remember it? For all of my 18 classes?? Or do I just study for a test?? Also, I have 2 books to read (actually I have a lot but only those seem interesting) do I remember every single name and year in that book (the first one is a book about Bulgaria and even though we are learning our history since 1st grade I still can't remember anything) What happens when you read the book, you go to school and remember that information till the book comes up as a question in some random Wednesday test that no one warned us about??
Also how do you learn for tests?? Do you just read everything you have in the notebook and just guess what will be on there??
I have never paid attention in class.. how do you do that as well??

How did I finish 10 years in school with nearly perfect grades and don't even know what to do?? If without studying I am very good, then with studying I have a chance of finishing full grade this year.
Helppp!!

Dear scar

Your questions are the same that have been bothering me my whole life!!!

Through my experience, I can say that I've learned that there are two paths:

1* The educational path: This is the unhealthy, in-conscientious, social-conforming path that we all have to go through to gain certificates, boost our CV's, gain highly successful jobs (by the terms of present-day societies). This is not a learning path, this is something that you're obliged to do, & actually harms your cognition & learning ability. But you have to do it anyway

For this, you have to memorize information as much as you can. You have to learn what your teacher or professor wants you to answer in the exam paper, & accordingly memorize what he wants. That's why paying attention in class is more important than memorizing books, so you would be able to write down what the teacher is saying, & recognize what the teacher wants you to memorize & write in his exam paper.

It would be excellent if you could memorize BOTH lecture notes + books, but if you're stressed in time, then give more attention to lecture notes + whatever you can extra memorize from books, so you'd indicate by your answers that you've memorized both!

As to how you can pay attention in class? I think the answer is by writing notes. This forces your attention to being alert to what's being said. When I don't have a notebook & a pen working on writing down what I'm hearing, I always can't help but get distracted...

What should you memorize? Everything, yes, sadly! If it's hard for you to memorize dates, you can ask the teacher if you should memorize them, or which dates should you memorize & which should you skip. Also, if it's hard to memorize all events, or sections, seek also the teacher & tell him this difficulty, & ask him what to focus on memorizing & what to skip...

All this has nothing to do with learning, all this is sadly rubbish, but we're all obliged to do it according to present educational-social standards!

2* As for "learning", this is a whole different thing... Memorizing information has nothing to do with learning, instead learning is about experiencing things, understanding & comprehending processes, reading (without any attempt to memorize or rehearse), experimenting, analyzing & solving problems, searching for data/knowledge/information relevant to the problems you want to solve, writing & creating new ideas, etc....

All those things are rarely incorporated into our present-day education systems, except by very few schools, center, & universities. There are approaches to learning that criticize our present way of education, such as Montessori Education, Critical Constructivist Education, Philosophy with Children, etc.... & they try to change our present education to become true learning, but sadly, their approaches haven't gained much progress in schools yet, perhaps because our socio-political governing systems have no benefit from people learning & raising their awareness & consciousness, which would lead them to fight those obsolete systems!

Try to spend some time learning outside of the education system beside your time spent memorizing & studying for exams to get certificates. You may get a high ranking job, apartment, & car by getting educational certificates, but you will not truly grow as a human & raise your consciousness level unless you learn, experience, & explore...

Albert Einstein: "The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education...".

Remember knowledge is important than grades, study calmly and do not try to cram things.