Remembering Learned Materials For Examtime - How?

This is the first question I'm asking on HN - so here it goes... I'm a B.E CS student going into 3rd year of my 4 year course. I've alway had this problem where I understood everything I need to understand to succeed in my course but find it difficult to remember the study material I read for the exams. I know there are many top students surfing HN everyday. It would be a much welcomed help if they could help me find my way. It would be great if you could tell about your notetaking/note-making techniques - how you read and how you formulate the knowledge which you need to remember. Any tips/tricks would be welcomed. I've read Cal Newport's excellent blog 'Study Hacks' but I want more and see if there are other better means and ways so that I can invest myself fully in those. Waiting for someone to guide me in the right way :)) P.S - I've been trying Supermemo's technique for remembering things, but it seems like rehashing everything from the book and since my books are quite large - it takes too much time...