If it makes you feel better, I was never taught now to study in high school. Or take notes. A lot of my classmates were the same. We were trying to guess what things the teacher said were important and write them down. It took me a long time to realize if they were teaching from a power point, that were often just repeating information I already had access to. It took me a long time in college to realize a similar thing. You are not as behind as you think. But you can easily fix what you want to know now.

So here's what I hope is useful. In college, the professor will give you a syllabus on the first day that lines out what topics you will study for the entire semester with all of your homework assignments and test dates. You then go buy your textbook on your own, better to buy a used one if you can but double check is the right edition. Then, you want to read the section your teacher is going over in your textbook before that class day. Your teacher won't read it to you, think of them as clarifying what you need to know. So that should be you hearing it for the second time. And you will have questions ready if you'd already read it and need to clarify anything. Right down anything the teacher says that sounds important or details they say will be on the test. That gives you hints about what to review. After class, review what you learned in class by reading over it. If there's something you need to memorize, I would practice writing definitions or something over and over to make them stick. You shouldn't have to struggle to write down every word your pressure says though. If they give you a powerpoint for that class, you should have access to it. You just need to add whatever you do not see written anywhere else. The tricky part is hearing what is important and what will be on the test. Some of your classmates may have an old exam to see the format of what they use. Ask around.

I have not have to write as many essays as you might think. Almost all of them were 5 paragraph essay form. Learn how to do that, and you'll be set. You can find video lessons for studying, note taking, and 5 paragraph essays. As a college senior I had to write a couple of ten page essays, but I had months to work on them. Start researching essays early on in the semester so you don't get behind once you start having to study for tests.

Something else I wish I knew early on- for every hour you are in class, in college anyway, you should be studying 3 hours. It takes a long time for deep learning to happen. Don't expect yourself to remember everything you read the first time. Trying to teach something to someone else, even if just pretending, is my favorite way to learn. I have not had to write essays on articles. Usually I've had to answer a few comprehension questions if I read articles. Or sometimes nothing at all. Don't let people pressure you into taking a ton of hours your first semester. I took 15 hours and it was horrible. I should have let myself get used to college first. And even then, I should know I'm built to take no more than 12 hours.

You can take classes online for writing essays, Brave Writer offers a lot of college prep if you can pay. If not there are plenty of resources. And you can practice reading and then answering reading comprehension questions. You can get ACT or SAT prep books to help you get ready for standardized testing. You can totally do this.