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It's plausible if by "maths graduate student" we understand "average maths graduate student". I.e. a different kind of student from that maths graduate student which the "expert in arithmetic geometry" once was.

We cannot interpret that as containing the claim that when any old randomly chosen maths graduate student becomes an expert in arithmetic geometry, they suddenly gain a 40X efficiency in understanding.

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Think of it like this: Someone in Sacramento can get to Milwaukee in 3 days (driving). Someone in Chicago can get to Milwaukee in 3 hours (or less). That's a 24x factor.

When any old randomly chosen person Sacramento gets to Chicago, they do not gain a 24x efficiency in traveling. Rather, they've covered most of the distance to Milwaukee already.

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