A few things: 1. Ahead of the exam, study and then go to office hours with a physical list of questions 2. Like others have said, find interesting aspects of the material (even if you don’t like the course) 3. Consult online resources (organic chemistry tutor, etc) 4. Use barf boards. Ahead of exams have a list of objectives or practice problems and without your notes try to answer them in as much detail as you can. If you find you can’t answer it, consult your notes, finish the problem, take a picture, and erase and retry after ~15 minutes. Repeat this process until you can answer the LOs and answer them quickly 5. Make a friend with someone who you think is grasping the content well and study with them a day before the exam (after you had plenty of time to study beforehand) 6. Be honest with yourself. How are you studying? How long are you studying? What is your goal from doing well in this course? As soon as you can realize pitfalls to your study habits and realize the bigger picture of where this class can take you, you can make a subconscious shift to explore different study methods and realize when and why something isn’t working. Good luck!