Do you need to study before taking tests?

When becoming fluent in Chinese in 63 weeks I need to study.

I didn't study in high school, as I was far to busy socializing
I "Graduated" with a 2.5 something. Which is about C- or D.
Went into the military where I took some tests which said I was a genius (I guess compared to all the other boots IDK")
After boot camp they sent me to school. (No studying except to read the TM's. They beat the rest into your brain.)
And I did good. All hands on stuff and tests about hands on stuff.
8 years later I got out and figured Hey! I did good in the schools. Maybe I should go to college
I had the G.I. Bill so I applied at UCLA. I think if you listen carefully you can still hear the administrators laughing
Went to LACC, a city college, signed up for some classes and would sit and listen and take notes on what to read etc
End Result 1 fail, 2 in-completes, 1 withdrawal
At his point the thought occurred to me that I could not get educated by osmosis.
I re-enrolled at LACC signed up for 2 English classes. Hired a tutor and settled down.
Tutor said "You have the worst study habits I have ever seen in my entire life" He gave me a list of things I absolutely had to do to learn
I read them and applied them and actually aced one of the English classes. Got a B in the other. It took me another 8 years to get my BA with with work and family. But I got it.
To answer the question, "Do you need to study before taking tests". The answer (for me at least) is: "Only if I want to pass"

i think it depends on the subject. i tend to retain a lot just from listening and participating in class discussion without having read or studied, but i can't in a lecture setting and i am horrible at memorizing shit unless i write it out as i am studying it or read it word for word.

in law school i did learn (after a misguided year of hardcore studying) that it is a waste of time to over-study. there is just an insane amount of material you are expected to understand, dissect, and regurgitate in some way and you forget most of it as soon as you start the next topic. it might not be so bad if all you had to do was memorize rules, but in most law schools that are higher up, professors don't like to tell you what the rule is from a case that you are suppose to memorize....they expect that you will figure it out and spend class time talking nuance. ahhh! takes a few months if not your first year to really understand what and how you are suppose to discern the rules.. and then of course all of our exams were just finals, so you have to understand a semester's worth of hard material and regurgitate it in a 3-4 hour exam and then that was your grade.

anyway, there is no way to get through law school without studying in some way shape of form...and then you have the bar..............spent 2.5 months studying 10-12 hours a day...waking up at 6am and going to bed at 12am...sucked. still don't know if i passed..

I usually don't have to study.
If i don't remember the answers, i'll just bs it and usually get a decent grade.