I strongly remember a mandatory English (literature) exam in Highschool where you had to write an essay in response to a question that was known beforehand, in relation to one of three or so books you had studied beforehand (You didn't know which on the day). The way this test was practiced was to get every student to write the full essay for all 3 books and then to memorize that. Most other English tests I had to take in Highschool were similar to this, but not quite as bad. I think you have too high of expectations from education systems to think that all tests test more than memorization or that people can simply "drop the class".