Stopping the "Will I need this for the test" question 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?


I had an economics professor state on the first day of class (and within his syllabus) that any topic/material for which this question was asked would be on the test.  He further stated he already has tests written up for the course, but would add additional questions to the test(s) every time this question was asked.  The additional questions would cover the material related to that for which the question was asked.  Lastly, to ensure everyone understood, he explicitly stated that by asking the question "Will this be on the test", the students were only making the test longer and harder.
