Two. Rereading, which feels like work

You read the chapter. You highlight. You read the highlights. It feels productive, it takes hours, and it is fluent and pleasant, because the material is in front of you and of course it looks familiar.

Then the exam asks you to produce it from nothing and it is not there.

The problem is not effort. You put in the effort. The problem is that the method that feels most productive while you are doing it is one of the weakest for what you actually need, and it hides that fact behind the feeling of fluency.