How to reduce your homework time by 75 percent

1, Be Organized

For each class, keep a college-ruled notebook and a stack of plain manila folders, Take all of your notes for this class in the notebook. For each test or paper in the class, label a fresh folder for holding the material and rough drafts. You will probably need an administrative folder for holding general information about the class - handouts describing assignment due dates, etc. The general rule, however, says that every piece of paper you get in the classroom goes either into the trash or into a labeled folder - no exceptions.

2, Let your notes do the heavy lifting
On the teenager-boredom scale, most students rate note taking slightly below watching an all-day marathon of The PBS NewsHour. The result is shoddy, halfhearted, chicken-scratched notes that aren't very useful. When it comes to studying for a test, most students are then forced to invest an absurd amount of time in trying to track down the relevant information and reformat it so that it can actually be understood. It's this relearning of information that makes studying such a mind-melting chore. It's also a huge waste of time.

When it comes to notes, the secret to saving time is staight-forward. If you actually invest the mental energy required to learn the information when its first presented, and then capture the learned information in an easy to review format, you will find that the time needed later to prepare for the test will be drastically reduced.

On approach is to use the QEC(question/evidence/conclusion) method is popular among high scoring college undergraduates.

3, Reject Rote Review

Non-math Course: Cover the evidence and conclustion and read the question, next, try to recall the conclusion and a collection of the evidence that connects it to the question. This recall should be completed out loud: speak in full and articulate sentences, as if lecturing a class.
Math course:  attempt to recreate the steps and answers to the sample problems recorded in your notes. You should also walk through the high level explanations you captured.
Memorized information: use flashcards or on diagrams with blanked-out labels.

4, Write papers over three days
5, Study like Darwin
After every test or paper, put aside a few minutes to perform a short postmortem on the experience. Ask yourself the following questions:
  - What preparation helped me?
  - What preparation didn't help me?
  - What could I have done, bud didn't, that would have made a big difference?
  - How am I going to prepare for the next test or paper?