geerad

(It's the amount of money D. B. Cooper was paid in ransom, adjusted for inflation.)

the myths we create about our own classmates--that the kid in the first row gets straight-A's without studying

I hate to break it to you, but that does sometimes happen. I made it through all of high school without studying. I paid attention in class and did my homework (most of the time), but I didn't study. I graduated 3rd in my high school class.

In college, I studied a little, but not much, and graduated with a 3.9 GPA.

My favorite is Young Frankenstein: "He would have an enormous schwanzschtücker." became "He would have an enormous personality."

The usual meaning of "study" in this context only applies to additional activity outside of the explicit assignments, such as re-reading portions of the textbook or doing additional practice problems. I didn't do any of that.

And to answer your rhetorical question, I spent most of my time in class thinking "I already learned this when she explained it the first time; when can we move on to something else?"