How do you study for tests?
Do you have any special routines? Like always having a cup of tea next to you? Read the everything a hundred times? Do you have a friend who asks you questions about things involving the test? You know these things. I always get A in every test but its hard for me, it just feels like I learn very slow, and I always have to put so much effort+time on studying spanish (in particular!). I love spanish, so it's not my lack of interest that causes my problem. So tell me about what you do to get the stuff into your brain!
4 Answers
My friends and students say that I am a pretty good Spanish Teacher, not only because I was born to this language, but studied it assiduously in high school and college. Just because you can speak it, doesn't mean that you know anything about it. Just consider some of the English afforded here by supposedly native English speakers. I'm not referring to those regulars on here who help out so much, I am referring to a good number of the students who post, at times some completely unintelligible questions.
I did have to learn English as a second language, though and here is how I did it.
Forget about so-called studying for tests. Language is acquired not learned like studying math or the sciences. It is more like acquiring skills on a musical instrument or a sport like Karate, which is my favorite. I didn't get my belt by watching Bruce Lee movies then take a two hour crash course and go for the test. Nor did I master English letting my assignments go until the last moment then study like mad for a test. I worked really hard on it for an hour a day for hard-nosed study, then during the day practiced what I had learned that day and the day before.
Then when test day rolled around I was confident that I knew everything that had been taught in class. I would do a quick review, then go to bed.
So remember, acquisition occurs slowly but steadily. There is no cramming for Foreign Language tests. Even if you do learn a few things, you'll forget them in a few days.
Buena suerte.
I study always good music and so I feel more relaxed in order to better understand and respond well my review
Hello Pinskov,
Welcome to the SpanishDict forum. 
One of the best ways to make sure you retain information that you learn while studying foreign languages is to practise it daily!
I find it really helps to practise speaking the language with a native teacher or speaker of the language and ask the natives who are not teachers to correct any mistakes you make. I personally find it much more helpful if they can write down how I should say something correctly, like in the message box in Skype. This is because I am very much a visual learner (visual/kinaesthetic.. .learning by doing!)
I cannot advise you on exam technique because I wasn't great at passing exams with high grades! 
I performed better with continuous assessment at school, college and University.
General advice:
Knowing yourself/the kind of person you are and your learning style (how you learn best) should enable to make progress in learning new information and skills in life!
There are 3 main styles of learning: auditory (learning by listening)visual (learning by seeing) and Kinaesthetic (learning by doing), and while many of us can and do learn to some extent through all of these styles, we will find that we learn best by one particukar method!
I prefer to revise with others testing each other; but if that option is not available I can revise on my own.
I hope this helps and that you receive some more specific guidance from others in this community.
There are various aspects to studying a language, and to me it's worthwhile to use different methods for them.
For example, if you're trying to study straight vocabulary, the index card method works best. English word on one side, Spanish equivalent on the other, and just keep flipping through the cards until you've memorized your words. And don't just do 250 cards the night before your test! Keep the cards with you and pull them out whenever you have a few minutes to use them. Cramming for language tests will only scramble your brain and nothing else.
To work on your verbs, run through the full conjugations. And while I know that it's customary to not always use pronouns when speaking, when you do a conjugation drill, you always should use the pronoun to drill it into your head. yo tengo, tú tienes, él tiene, nosotros tenemos, ella tiene. Then do your past tenses, future tenses, etc..
Finally, to put it all together, come to this site often and participate in the games/exercises. Try posting sentences using the "palabra del día" and picture of the day and read everybody else's (give votes too). Then come back later and view your post, because the good people here will comment with corrections to your sentence. That is how you learn.
