Если прогуливать слишком много занятий, потом трудно готовиться к сессии.

Russian can use если + infinitive in a very general, impersonal way.

So Если прогуливать слишком много занятий... means something like:

• If you/one skip(s) too many classes...
• If a person keeps missing too many classes...

It is not about one specific person; it is a general statement.

A version with a finite verb is also possible:

• Если пропускаешь слишком много занятий, потом трудно готовиться к сессии.

That sounds a bit more directly like if you skip... in a general sense.

The infinitive version feels more neutral and generalized.

Прогуливать means to skip, to miss on purpose, especially classes, lectures, school, or work.

So this is not just accidentally missing a class. It usually implies deliberately not attending.

Compare:

• пропускать занятия = to miss classes, neutral
• прогуливать занятия = to skip classes, often intentionally

So прогуливать has a stronger sense of playing truant / skipping.

Because after много Russian normally uses the genitive plural.

• много занятий = many classes
• много книг = many books
• много студентов = many students

The basic nominative singular is:

• занятие = class, lesson, session

Its genitive plural is:

• занятий

So:

• слишком много занятий = too many classes

• много = many / a lot of
• слишком много = too many / excessively many

So:

• много занятий = many classes
• слишком много занятий = too many classes

Here слишком adds the idea that the amount is excessive and leads to a bad result.

This is a very common Russian impersonal structure.

• трудно = hard / difficult
• готовиться = to prepare
• к сессии = for the exam period

So literally it is something like:

• Then [it is] hard to prepare for exams.

Russian often leaves out a subject where English uses it:

• Трудно понять. = It is hard to understand.
• Легко забыть. = It is easy to forget.

So потом трудно готовиться к сессии is a normal Russian way to say then it is hard to prepare for exams.

Because the sentence is talking about a process in general, not one single completed action.

• готовиться = imperfective, to prepare / be preparing
• подготовиться = perfective, to get prepared / prepare successfully

Here the meaning is:

• it is hard to do the preparation process
• it becomes difficult to study and prepare

So imperfective is the natural choice.

If you said трудно подготовиться к сессии, that would focus more on the result:

• it is hard to get fully prepared for the exam period

Both can make sense, but готовиться fits the ongoing process especially well.

It is the dative case, because the verb готовиться takes к + dative.

Pattern:

• готовиться к чему? = to prepare for what?

Examples:

• готовиться к экзамену = to prepare for an exam
• готовиться к уроку = to prepare for a lesson
• готовиться к сессии = to prepare for the exam period

So:

• сессия = nominative
• к сессии = dative after к

Not exactly.

In Russian university language, сессия usually means the exam period, especially the set period at the end of a semester when students take exams and tests.

So in this sentence, к сессии means:

• for exams
• for the exam period
• for finals/exam session

It is a very common student word in Russian.

Yes, here потом means then / later / afterwards.

It marks the consequence in time:

• first, you skip too many classes
• later, preparing for exams becomes difficult

So потом connects the first situation with its later result.

It does not have to mean a very long time later; it just means after that.

Yes, but the meaning changes.

• прогуливать = imperfective, repeated/habitual/general
• прогулять = perfective, a completed act or total amount

So:

• Если прогуливать слишком много занятий...
  = If you keep skipping too many classes / if one skips too many classes in general

• Если прогулять слишком много занятий...
  = If you end up skipping too many classes / if too many classes are missed

The original sentence uses прогуливать because it sounds like a general rule about habitual behavior.

Because the sentence starts with a subordinate clause introduced by если:

• Если прогуливать слишком много занятий, ...

Russian separates that subordinate clause from the main clause with a comma.

Structure:

• Если ... , потом трудно ...

This is standard punctuation in Russian, just like English often uses a comma after an initial if-clause.

Yes. Russian here is intentionally general, so English can express it in several ways:

• If you skip too many classes, it becomes hard to prepare for exams.
• If one skips too many classes, it is hard to prepare for the exam period.
• Skipping too many classes makes it hard to prepare for exams.

All of these reflect the same general idea. Russian often leaves the subject more vague than English does.