I have awful working memory; it was tested in the 0.2 percentile. Even so, my grades are pretty decent and I'm able to hold down a job. When I study, I take lots of notes in the margins because the act of writing helps with memory. I also summarize what I read at the end of each section.
It's also helpful to combine rote learning with critical thinking. I know rote learning has taken a lot of criticism, but if you need to input a bunch of facts into your long-term memory storage then repetition this is really the best approach.
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Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently.