Will This be on the Test?

Big tests around the corner?  Wishing your professors would throw out some ideas about what to review? 

Chances are they already have.  If you can learn to listen carefully in your classes, you can often anticipate test topics--and even test questions--long before the big day arrives.

Despite differences in teaching styles, many professors do in fact drop hints about material they consider important.

Sometimes these hints are almost impossible to miss.  When your professor tells your class, "This is something you absolutely need to know" or "You really need to understand this," you can bet the item in question will turn up on the next exam.

Other hints may be more subtle.  The faculty member who spends lots of class time talking about a specific topic or idea is saying (in not so many words) that this is important material--and something you need to learn.  So is the prof who makes frequent references to a particular point/theory/concept introduced earlier in the course.  Hearing about a topic again and again should tip you off to its importance.

And speaking of tips: don't overlook material that, for whatever reason, is near and dear to professors' hearts (and likely to appear on exams).  Most English professors, for example, have a favorite story, poem, or play, something they are passionate about.  Many History faculty have an historical figure or event they find especially intriguing--and highlight in class lectures.  Your Psychology professor may review several theories of child development in class, but he or she probably favors one, which you'll hear about in greater detail.

Pay attention to your profs' preferences!

Listening for hints and other clues isn't a substitute for giving your classes your best effort, but it can take some of the guesswork out of preparing for tests.  And who can quarrel with that?