Do I Really Have to Teach Reading? by Cris Tovani has a lot of great ideas for helping students who have a difficult time studying. Some suggestions from her book:

Have students highlight each word in a paragraph or section of a text. Highlight all the words and concepts they understand in yellow and all the words and concepts they don’t understand in pink then turn to a partner and explain the text highlighted in yellow to a partner.

Double entry diary – have students select quotes from the text and then write a comment about that quote.

She has several other ideas, but I have heard from my students that the two mentioned above helps them get into the material and focus better.

As for the bad teacher portion of your question, just try to survive until the end of the term. Figure out how the teacher works in terms of exams and quizzes and projects and try to meet the requirements.

I personally hated studying, and could never concentrate on school texts in my personal time. In fact it caused me a lot of grief in middle school, then in high school I guess I cleaned up my act and actually ended up Salutatorian / National Merit.

So his studying problem is most likely a reflection of his incompatibility with the teaching style. I think this is an issue that the student and the teacher should discuss, and maybe try to work out some alternative methods together, maybe incorporating some study / refresher type teaching in the classroom.

If the teacher is bad, then rely on the text book. Keep asking the teacher questions. They might not realize that they are not instructing well enough.

maybe focus on something that you really want to achieve in the future and simply reach it and grab it by studying more

to achieve those dreams