when i took my quantum mechanics qualifier, i studied for a month, i was honest, i worked so hard. The exam was so tough (I passed), but as I was walking out I saw a student who had all the old exam questions with solutions printed out on his "table of integrals". Sure, maybe I "learned" some quantum mechanics more than that guy. But it's a topic I have never used (I do geophysics and machine learning) so I don't think I remember much of anything about quantum mechanics. So what was the lesson learned there? "Work smart, not hard"? "Do whatever the minimum is because that is all that gets assessed"? "The goal is all that matters"? "The ends justify the means"? "Worry about yourself"?