I am a smart student.

Highlighting feels like studying and mostly is not. The page looks handled, the yellow accumulates, and the material stays exactly where it was — on the page rather than in you.

The uncomfortable version works better. Close the book and say what was on it. You will find you cannot, and that failure is the actual mechanism doing its job.

Being good at learning is largely knowing this about yourself and choosing the method that feels worse.

Fluency while reading is not knowledge. It is recognition, wearing knowledge's coat.