Sometimes, we tell them what the questions are. But mostly, they have no real understanding of the relevance of the questions to their lives. This is supposed to motivate people to want to learn. Motivation literature is very clear on this point. Our current techniques motivate students to struggle to remember enough to pass an exam.
Motivation is the key.
Of course, we know that some people are self-motivated. They have a desire to learn everything and anything. We don't have to worry about them. But others need to know why they should listen to you or me. Most of the problem here is that people are in colleges who don't belong in colleges.