re: Studying used to be so easy in school.

Other way around for me. I passed anything K-12 without thinking. Tried that in college and just about failed out my first semester. Dad threatened to bring me home and get me a job welding (which I should've done anyway) and then gone back. Then grad school, where you have to study but there is a massive shortcut - get last year's outline, highlight it and know where all the answers were. Any books you have to read - first chapter, last chapter, then first paragraph of each chapter plus the title sentence of any paragraph.

That's basically how I learn now, and I go back and read for detail if necessary.