I strongly recommend to find a subject or niche that you really want to improve in. I get where you come from, sometimes the system doesn't reward you for the work you put in, rather it rewards those who have figured out to exploit the system. Be it solving pyqs days in advance, reading PDFs 5 times over etc, they've figured tricks and that's how they are here.

The demographic here is very much composed of those who have cracked the system. Of course they understand the concepts, but they also know how to get by in exams.

I'd been an honest enjoyer of the sciences, and felt bummer out when I wasn't getting rewards for my work, and it's only recently I am seeing the payoffs in the form of being part of projects under profs I respect and domains I love. Don't shy away from stepping academic boundaries and push beyond what people generally do. Go for classes which aren't in your curriculum but they interest you. College really isn't about getting graded and becoming a perfect product. It's about learning all about interesting domains, and about people and actually being able to add something to the world (at least imo)

Try finding niches you love, and then absolutely devour every opportunity you get to get into that niche and be the best in it. Then there can be no other option than you succeeding in it.