TITLE: Stopping the "Will I need this for the test" question
QUESTION [159 upvotes]: I am a college professor in the American education system and find that the major concern of my students is trying to determine the specific techniques or problems which I will ask on the exam. This is the typical "will this be on the test?" question. 
I find this to be a major detraction from students education. Students seem to have the notion that they can discard a lot of ideas and just memorize a few specific problems in order to pass the class. Given the philosophy of some teachers to "teach to the test" when in a standardized testing environment, this does not surprise me. 
This stressful approach to education seems to make student overlook major themes in each class and themes in the subject as a whole. Even worse, once they land in classes like calculus 3 and real analysis, the effects of this point of view rears its head in an ugly way. 
My question is: 

How can we turn students away from this way of thinking?

REPLY [2 votes]: I'm a current Math undergrad (a junior).  I've gotten to the point where most of my GenEd requirements are met, so now I can focus on Math and Computer Science.  As I'm sure you know, these courses are very time intensive.  It helps to be able to focus on what's important for a grade so I'm not wasting time.  For instance, in the Spring I'm taking Modern Algebra, Number Theory, Complex Analysis, and an algorithm course (and Spanish).  It's going to be a ridiculous amount of work, but I want to graduate on time and hopefully go to grad school. 
Yes, I want to learn and understand every concept being taught. And, no, I don't think I have the faculties or the time to be "test-ready" on all concepts especially during a final exam week.