It is definitely not the case that if student A performs better on a timed high-stakes test than student B, that means A must have worked harder / prepared better / know the material better / etc. than B. Some people are very skilled at bullshitting their way through stupid school tests, and others are not. Very few school tests are well enough designed that they can effectively measure the intended target of how well someone understands the topic, content, and course-specific skills which are being intentionally trained in the course.
Bullshitting though tests is a learnable / trainable skill, but schools generally do not teach it very coherently or well and most students do not deliberately practice it. It generally doesn't have that much to do with the content or other skills intentionally taught by any particular course or by schools in general (there's decent overlap with the skills involved in competitive debate and extemporaneous speech, which some students participate in as an extracurricular activity). Rating students on how good they are at bullshitting their way through exams is sadly a significant part of the way our education system is focused and organized, but in my opinion it is not a valuable or particularly valid approach. There are certain professional contexts/tasks where this kind of skill is useful, but developing it per se shouldn't be the focus of the education system.
Sometimes this and related skills are summarized as "intelligence" ("oh she aced the test without studying, she must just be really smart", etc.), but in my opinion it's quite a misleading use of the word.
Bullshitting though tests is a learnable / trainable skill, but schools generally do not teach it very coherently or well and most students do not deliberately practice it. It generally doesn't have that much to do with the content or other skills intentionally taught by any particular course or by schools in general (there's decent overlap with the skills involved in competitive debate and extemporaneous speech, which some students participate in as an extracurricular activity). Rating students on how good they are at bullshitting their way through exams is sadly a significant part of the way our education system is focused and organized, but in my opinion it is not a valuable or particularly valid approach. There are certain professional contexts/tasks where this kind of skill is useful, but developing it per se shouldn't be the focus of the education system.
Sometimes this and related skills are summarized as "intelligence" ("oh she aced the test without studying, she must just be really smart", etc.), but in my opinion it's quite a misleading use of the word.