We seem to agree the point of college is to learn given concepts and master their application.

Does the study guide contain the types of problems the course is aiming to teach? Do students have to apply the skills learned in class to complete the study guide, and prepare for the test? If so, in preparing for the test, the students have probably mastered the material before they ever walk in to take it. Whether or not the question on the test are the same is irrelevant at that point.

Can somebody copy the answers from his friend's study guide and pass a test without really knowing anything? Sure, but that kind of corner-cutting happens in all areas of life.

I can guarantee you I didn't learn as much as the classes where I had to apply my conceptual understanding of a field without the crutch of a study guide.

That's fine for you. Since we're speaking anecdotally, I had plenty of tests I studied for and learned the formulas and problems so I could explode knowledge all over a 45-minute test. Then the class moved on and so did college and now I don't remember a lot of that stuff, and 95% of it I don't need to remember. I didn't learn it.

Meanwhile, I had plenty of open book tests and group assignments that taught me to parse information, work quickly and efficiently, use the resources available to me and make determinations. All of those skills are still relevant to me today, even though I can't recount the chronological events of a foreign conflict or label the parts of a cell through a microscope.

College teaches you a lot of shit. The actual material taught in class is a very small portion of it. I wish people would remember that before taking up the circlejerk of "classes have to be really hard and they have to be STEM for you to be successful" every time someone posts a meme about a "break" they got in college.