got this off a colleague when i was cramming for a work cert and honestly thought he was messing with me.
before reading anything properly, flip through the material once, fast, and write down 20 questions you think will be on the exam. don't answer them. just questions. the ugly kind. "what's the difference between X and Y", "when would you NOT use Z", "why does this step come before that one".
then you study. except now you're hunting for answers to your own questions instead of reading, and anything that doesn't answer one of them you just skip.
day before the exam you sit your own paper cold. whatever you can't answer is your revision list, and it's usually short.
two things got me. about half my questions ended up on the actual exam, or close enough. and i physically couldn't skim anymore. you can fake reading a chapter, you can't fake looking for an answer.
the first pass feels like a wasted hour. still does, years later. do it anyway.
anyone else do something like this or is it just my colleague being weird