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Oh yeah, when it comes to academics, I believe it's much easier to be good at it, if you find it interesting.  For example, I really really disliked Biology.  The Life Sciences really just don't interest me.  So for me I had to really work a lot harder to maintain top grades in that class.  The saving grace for me, is that there was just a lot of rote memorization, which I've always been quite good at.  At my best I've had a near photographic memory, I can recall tests in history class when I could literally picture the pages of the book, and recall the answers from the words on that page.

My memory is no longer that sharp of course, and there are days where I've forgotten where I put my keys, and find them days later, in a linen closet or something.

I can't say I "hated" biology, but it really never grabbed my interest. I disliked chemistry. Definitely knew I wouldn't be a ChemE lol...

I really enjoyed physics. And being a computer geek in high school, going EE was pretty much a given. 

@utee94 question for you on how things work in Texas... When I was in HS in Illinois, AP physics was two semesters and included both statics/mechanics and E&M, and the AP version was calculus based. I don't recall there ever being a non-calculus AP at the time...

My son (Jr in HS) is taking AP Physics 1, which is algebra-based. Next year he has the opportunity to take AP Physics 2, which still isn't calc-based. Apparently that's now AP Physics C, but most schools here in our district don't offer the E&M portion, only statics/mechanics, and it's a full year. His teacher is retiring this year and apparently was the only teacher in the district who taught E&M, but next year his school isn't even offering the statics/mechanics portion of AP Physics C as they don't have anyone to teach it... 

Is this similar to what is offered in TX? 

I can't say I "hated" biology, but it really never grabbed my interest. I disliked chemistry. Definitely knew I wouldn't be a ChemE lol...

I really enjoyed physics. And being a computer geek in high school, going EE was pretty much a given.

@utee94 question for you on how things work in Texas... When I was in HS in Illinois, AP physics was two semesters and included both statics/mechanics and E&M, and the AP version was calculus based. I don't recall there ever being a non-calculus AP at the time...

My son (Jr in HS) is taking AP Physics 1, which is algebra-based. Next year he has the opportunity to take AP Physics 2, which still isn't calc-based. Apparently that's now AP Physics C, but most schools here in our district don't offer the E&M portion, only statics/mechanics, and it's a full year. His teacher is retiring this year and apparently was the only teacher in the district who taught E&M, but next year his school isn't even offering the statics/mechanics portion of AP Physics C as they don't have anyone to teach it...

Is this similar to what is offered in TX?

It's similar here now, sounds pretty much the same.

When I was in school, the AP Physics was not calculus-based.  So you could take  the AP test, and place out of regular Physics, but at Texas at least, you couldn't place out of Engineering Physics. No matter what your HS Physics background, all engineering majors had to take the two full semesters of UT Engineering Physics.  And it was MUCH more difficult than was the Physics class for Physics majors.  My roommate was taking that and it was laughably easy.

Having a good teacher is a thing.  I had maybe 2 in HS, probably 4-5 in college, the rest were, well, humdrum.

For many professors, teaching is a real chore, one they do begrudgingly at best.  It's not a thing that butters their bread at all.

It's similar here now, sounds pretty much the same.

When I was in school, the AP Physics was not calculus-based.  So you could take  the AP test, and place out of regular Physics, but at Texas at least, you couldn't place out of Engineering Physics. No matter what your HS Physics background, all engineering majors had to take the two full semesters of UT Engineering Physics.  And it was MUCH more difficult than was the Physics class for Physics majors.  My roommate was taking that and it was laughably easy.

Yeah, my AP physics was calculus based. I got 5's on both parts of the test. Purdue wasn't going to take that for credit. 

They allowed me to take the actual statics/mechanics final during the summer prior to my first semester, and only with the 5 on the AP test AND passing the final did they allow me out of it. 

But as a EE, there was no way I was getting out of E&M. They had E&M for engineering majors, and then they had a separate harder E&M class specifically for EE majors. That class was still hard, but it really helped that I'd taken it in HS and learned it well enough for a 5 on the AP, so I was already familiar with it. 

well, that's a weird discussion on history

I had calculus in HS, it was pretty basic stuff, I could diff and int some things.  I hit college and took calculus, again, Honors level, and we covered everything I learned in HS in Day one of the first quarter and Day two of the second.  The rest was ... obscure.  The prof wrote on the board with chalk with one hand and erased with the other.  Some folks in the class didin't bother taking notes, they just watched.  I vaguely recall something called Green's Theorem, but not what it was about of course.

The text book was zero help, no overlap with what the professor was saying.  I got through it somehow.  

My first semester in grad school we all took a course called "Bonding", same kind of thing, book was zero help, the professors wrote, they didn't erase at least, but I really had no clue what was going on.  None.  The first test came and I made something like a 57 only to learn it was second highest grade in the class.  Your first semester you don't really know anyone yet and everyone looked like they understood it all, but nobody did.  So, I somehow slid through with a "P".  (They had an odd, to me, HPLF grading system, if you got an F you were out, if you got two Ls you were out (Low Pass), if you got all Ps you were fine, and they just didn't give any H (High Pass) grades.  Fortunately, we had about a year and a half of classes and then none from there on.  That meant our tuition dropped to zero which was fine.

There was another guy from UGA who came in a year after me, I knew him, he was wicked smart, but somehow unfocused, and he ended up disappearing one day.  It was guys and gals like me who muddled through mostly.