I may not need the information once I get through the tests.

Frankly speaking, If I knew what the instructor is going to ask, why will I even need to activate the books!? Or even photoreading them at the first place? Look for the answers to related chapters and I am done.
But it doesnt happen that way. And as far as I know, no top universities do that.

I tried mindmapping but I find it very slow. I am a visual learner and my preferred style of learning had been to visualize particularly everything I read. Can I use this as an activation tool? If yes, how?

Thanks.