> is not the kind of student to neglect going to class out of laziness or whatever and fail out because of that.

Well, I was. I tried repeatedly to skip class and still pass. It did not work. The low point was finals week, first semester, sophomore year. I was looking at flunking out. I had serious pain in my gut from stress.

I squeaked by.

That was it for me. I decided that I was never again going to miss a lecture, always take notes properly, never again skip homework (doing homework was not required), and I would master every single homework problem on time.

That worked for me. I started getting B's, eventually turning into A's.