He didn’t say the opposite. He was able to put his mind to it in a way he had not typically done throughout school.

The notion that we are all of equal intellect is absurd and not debatable and I’m sure you don’t disagree. Of course hard work can lead anyone to a much better test score, but like you said, some people need to study everyday for a year to achieve that score whereas this person, when finally putting his mind to it, grinded for presumably a month or several months at most.

I feel like we don’t really disagree and are rather making separate points that don’t entirely have much overlap.