as someone who just started their first year of college, i totally agree! i was an avid AP/dual credit course-taker in high school and graduated in the top five percentile of my class but i have to admit that the way i used to study wasn't very effective and left me struggling to recompensate for the time i had wasted on forcing myself to regurgitate information without a basic level of comprehension for the subjects i studied. it's so important to immerse yourself in textbooks: they seriously are the stepping stones for long-term memorization which will help you out now and set you up for success in future courses. the only "old" method i still heavily utilize are flashcards. i'm a pre-med student and there are so many terms & definitions to know. flashcards are great buttttt i NEVER write down anything word for word. instead, i try to reduce as much as i can while still being able to conceptualize the overall meaning of what i'm studying :)