If you want to get ahead in the world, you have to know stuff; and the more you know, the better you are. That’s just the way the world works. Nobody is going to pay money to people who don’t know their stuff. Now with that said, let me go over a few myths in learning.
You don’t need a photographic memory to do well in school; in fact, I would think a photographic memory might work against you. What would your poor brain do if it remembered every piece of useless junk it came across? No, I think having a photographic memory would go against you much like the pack rat who stores up every useless piece of junk he finds on the street but can’t find any of it because his house is so cluttered.
To excel in school, you need to study and do as much as you can. It helps to have a passion for what you are studying. And studying doesn’t have to be drudgery. You can make it interesting by viewing it as an adventure to know more than you do right now.
The people who do well in school so so because they study. Think of studying for a test as football practice for a game. You wouldn’t expect to do well in football if you didn’t study, would you? Nor would you expect to do well in a football game if you watched television or smoked marijuana during practice.
Now, sometimes the teacher cannot explain the material in the way you can “get it.” In that case you can easily search the material on the internet and find a teacher who can help you. That is what I do. I search everything. When I was a kid, we didn’t have the internet or YouTube videos. Now we do, so there isn’t any excuse for living in ignorance. Everything you ever want to know is on YouTube.
Now, when it comes to tests, do your best and forget the rest. Remember it is the knowledge you put in your brain that is important, not the score on the test which we know in this day and age often does not test what you really know. What I am trying to say is that you should not let a lousy test score get in the way of your desire to read and know more.