Is it a must to collect resources from previous students to be a successful student? Last semester, I was doing well (A+) in three of the five courses I was taking, but had a problems with two others:


For one course, the professor supplied a long list of study materials of several thousand of pages. And, the lecture material was way too extensive for a four-month semester. I downloaded lecture materials from other universities to cut the load and still found it very extensive. Then, from the end of April, 2019, my brain was signalling an SOS. Finally, I failed in the theory part of this course, and as a result failed in the course.
For another course, I obtained A+ in labs, and projects. But, I found the time inadequate to prepare for the theory test.


These two courses increased my stress level, and that stress level caused an anxiety attack in the first week of May, 2019. As result I failed in four courses.

Later I found that successful students were actually massively cheating in those two courses.


For Course 1, they were actually not following materials supplied by the professor at all. they have developed a massive database of all old questions.
For Course 2, they uploaded all the assembly language programs to the server before the lab sessions. Also, they have developed a massive database of all old questions.




I have two questions regarding this:    


Is my experience very common or normal?
Is it a must to collect old resources from previous students to be a successful student?
No.  It is not normal for students to use a student-collected database of old questions.  I know this is done at some universities, but personally I have never seen one.

The proper thing is for faculty to supply sufficient quality and quantity of study material that students will not benefit from these databases of old questions.  Faculty also should not reuse test questions which might be in a student-collected database, but not in the study materials.  

When faculty reuse tests and keep the content "secret," then student-collected databases create unfair advantages for certain student groups.  These groups often exclude minority students.  This is an unacceptable practice.