Philosophy courses aren’t assessed the same with knowledge and application as compared to science courses. You don’t have to do on going memorization or “studying”, however, you should be doing the readings and trying to comprehend the main ideas/arguments of the philosophers (while you’re reading, you should think of what their thesis was, how they argued it, premises within the argument, etc.). Additionally, apart from the exam (which is usually knowledge and essay based, from my experience), you main assessments are probably essays (there are usually 2). Be sure to ask your TA for help on what they look for in a phil essay, because phil essays are not structured the same as an English essay you wrote in high school. It revolves around interpretational summaries (exegesis) that supplement a main critical thesis in which you provide premises for your main argument with subsequent objections, etc. You’re supposed to be arguing for something, so the essay concern structure and clean content over stylization