It might be a knee-jerk reaction on my end when it comes to to the whole "maybe I'm not smart enough", but you're showing awareness of your own (current) limits, which isn't something to speak lightly of.
What are your experiences with problem solving? It's something you learn, like most things. You might not be able to 'think' in that fashion now, but I know quite a few people who swear their brains and perspectives have been reprogrammed through forcing themselves to study math despite lack of talent, and in my own experience you can learn to flex and twist your mind much like you can your body, even if just like with your body it might be easier or harder in some directions.
You might however lack the aptitude which make it more fun to engage in or otherwise lead many more savvy to programming and CS, and only you can decide wheter this is something that slows you down or stops you dead.
When I did martial arts, I had some students who were dismissive towards their less sports-savvy comrade since they took longer or had a harder time to learn the basics; but what they forgot were that they'd already learned all the periphery skills of using their body from other sports, for them it was a simple matter of learning one more skill atop their experience and skill at already using their bodies, the ones who were having troubles were learning several more skillsets at once since they hadn't up to that point.
The same could apply to you, people have the opportunity to learn or understand different things at different points in their lives; some lessons some of my friends learned when they were 12 which other friends learned when they were 60, partially since they hadn't had the opportunity to truly learn or understand them until then.
I guess what I'm trying to say is, try not to be discouraged because it's hard; it can sometimes mean you're not aware of all the things on your plate at the moment, and even if it feels you're failing you're probably learning something else that's also beneficial while you do.
Sorry for semi-rant, but that's the part I felt remotely competent to comment on.
I do however agree that projects are the way to go if you wish to learn or remember. I and my friends learn more from our personal pet projects than we've ever done at our University.