Well I've always been one of those incredibly annoying people who does no work, no study or swatting yet still comes top of the class.
In my RAF days I trained to be an electronics technician and for most of the course I was out pubbing and clubbing and never did any revision for exams. And I still came top in most of them.
The key, of course, is to listen intently in class and let the stuff really sink in. I never take notes in lessons or lectures as I think it distracts you from concentrating on what's being taught meaning you only get a superficial understanding.
But I
love learning. I know you and others on here like the paranormal stuff but seriously, it's an intellectual void. If you really want to be fascinated by stuff, science is the way to go. When I started my OU degree I began it with the science foundation course and even though I was always a science head, it absolutely opened my eyes (and mind) to all sorts of things. It was a mixture of physics, chemistry, biology and earth sciences.
I measured the diameter of the moon from my back garden, I crushed living plant cells and looked through a microscope to capture the moment of cell division taking place, I made chemical compounds and analysed them to work out their chemical formulas, and learned how plate tectonics allow the movement of the continents (and give rise to earthquakes, volcanoes, etc.) - and lots more.
All of this with the background of scientific understanding.
Honestly, after studying just that one introductory course it felt like I had a perspective on the world that was many times wider than before. I did many other courses too (mainly physics and chemistry) and I spent the last 4 years doing all the modules required to get a BPS accredited degree in psychology. Got a 2.1 without really trying!
Then I get accused of being 'closed minded' by someone who thinks they're 'open minded' because they believe in the possibility of ghosts or similar!
But my point is that the real stuff, the scientific study of nature, is infinitely more fascinating than simply believing in 'the possibility' of something that's incredibly unlikely. The trouble is: scientific understanding requires effort and learning - flaky paranormal stuff simply requires belief.