Few people in the US are shown how to study. People end up doing a wide range of things. But most of the methods that work seem to be something along the lines of: Clunking things so you use about 2/3 of your natural attention span 'studying' then review and repeat as needed. Get a good rhythm going and you can loose track of time. So, it's a good idea to take regular short breaks, just get back to it when your done.

You need to cover enough material that reviewing is not quite trivial, but no so much that your mind starts to wonder.