School was always weird for me in the past. I had a full year once, my grades were fairly poor. I was 'kicked out' the year after, I came back and did the exams only. I got decent grades.
Weird, I don't know why.
Cos exams are all about memory.
I could recite you the entire thesis behind Marxism, Neo-Marxism, Functiolism, Left Theory, Right Theory, Durkehim's past and a ton of other stuff last year.
Now I can hardly tell you what the Neo-Nuclear family is.
A few years before that I could give you the entire process of Hitler's rise to power. Which parties he opposed, which tricks he used, what failed what succeeded, how he was terrible etc..
Now I don't can't recall the awesome dude who won all those noble prizes and was the best thing Germany had before he died and the only thing I know about Hitler is Article 48 which was basically a political cheat-code.
Face it.
School is great for social skills, how to interact with superiors and a tool to utilise for your future.
You learn very little in the academics area.
Maybe once I get to university this'll change since your focus is on one thing alone.
But during my GCSEs and A levels you're so pressured into remembering the next key points for the next exams that you really forget most things once you've passed them so you can focus on the next.
That entire paper is your future.
There's no way out of it unless you want a sh*tty job at minimum wage.
There's A LOT of pressure, so much that I think a lot of adults don't realise this since they forgot about it all.