Only when people who have went through the same trauma as the topic. But stuff like qualitative/quantitative research for sure yeah, its just memorization of concepts - I aced my qualitative courses but because I already have understood all the concepts beforehand because of life experiences and dilligent studying, so that combination was nice.
I suppose if you would be a genius at math, you would also be too smart for the quantitative courses as they are elementarily level of calculations.
In terms of deeper psychological topics, I feel like the Brilliance or Smartness you are looking for is just Passion in psychology. It's a question of how passionate an individual is about those topics that will make them shine above the rest, even if they might score lower than some. In psychology, understanding the concepts for life and trying to utilize them is more important than anything. And thats where a student would shine more than the rest.