There are a lot of arguments about what “smart” is, and there is definitely a lot of memorizing involved in high school classes, but what I would recommend is figuring out what your personal learning style is and then play to those strengths. If you always remember stuff after you make flash cards, then do that. If you remember graphs and diagrams, copy down or create those. If learning mnemonics (like “My very eager mother just served us nine pizzas” for the old planet model) can help you remember sequences of things, use those. For most people, repetition is the key to remembering (and more importantly, understanding!) material. I teach in high school, and I can tell you right now, the students who pass in work and come to class consistently are the ones getting good grades, while even talented students can fail if they don’t put in the effort. Natural talent helps, but hard work is ultimately the difference-maker.

Sadly, it is to be good at memorizing. I’m alright at that, but I know my application skills are going down the drain. I’m working on this. Hopefully, you will do more than what the school system expects. It will be much easier when you put some extra effort into learning beyond.

If you’re good at memorizing, then you are considered pretty smart. It takes studying and working hard to make good grades. Good luck to you.

I think for most subject you have to be good at memorizing, which is totally not fair!

School is a job, like any other. Study hard and learn…it will pay off in your future.