Well, it is simply another skillset since at some point you have to game the teachers setting the grades, which involves other kinds of (meta-)hacks. I remember one student who specifically asked every professor at the start of the semester what he had to do in order to get the best grade and then he meticulously kept track of the "progress", some teachers were very reluctant to do so in "specific" terms but in the end he "gamed" it successfully.
As a fun side note from the Old Continent: There is a kind of "ultimate achievement ring" of academia in Austria which dates at least back to the monarchy times under Ferdinand II and in its secularized form is now called "Promotio sub auspiciis Praesidentis rei publicae" and accordingly specified in Austrian federal law [0][1] which has to be followed by each Uni and kept updated[2].
The gist: perfect scores beginning from "Sekundarstufe II" (~ age 14-15) to the terminal degree "PhD/doctorate" achieved in regular time or better.
A fun side note of the fun side note: In 1910, Erwin Schrödinger who formally passed all the requirements for a "sub auspiciis" didn't get to put on the "ring of honor" because the University of Vienna at the time limited the award to only 3 candidates/year, he would have been the fourth one.
[0]https://www.ris.bka.gv.at/Dokument.wxe?Abfrage=Bundesnormen&...
[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sub_auspiciis_Praesidentis#Pro...
[2]https://senat.univie.ac.at/promotion-sub-auspiciis-praesiden...