I am built different, but it's more that I'm built incorrectly: I just can't memorize. My ADHD/autism makes it impossible to memory dump because I can't pay attention unless I find it interesting. If I don't engage with it on a deep level, I don't learn anything at all, even for a test.
Despite more than a decade of classes, I can't even understand complex conversations in Spanish. I was never forced to use it in my day-to-day life, so I never learned anything. On the other hand, I joined college level courses late while in high-school, yet still scored higher than everyone else on the end of the year tests. I found psychology and economics intuitively fascinating because I could see how they shaped the world around me.
It may sound obnoxious, but my study strategy was to genuinely learn stuff and integrate it into my understanding of reality. I find learning fun, so I'm able to focus and learn better than most people. It's a truly broken ability.
When you take a History class, you memorize a whole bunch of dates and names and places etc etc etc and often have to name those on tests.
You are likely to forget most of the specific names, dates, places etc etc etc that you learned, but the overarching timeline, events, important ideas that people represented etc etc etc will stick with you. And that's the point.
Nah stress comes from them being infrequent and high stakes. Each test should have less impact on your overall grades. The current system is like raising children but only ever giving them any quality feedback 2 times per year and then being confused when they did stupid shit in that last half year. Thats stressfull for everyone. What we need is a regular feedback loop so you can actually course correct in a realistic way.
Gotta learn the same way you do languages. Learn it once and use it regularly. Basic algebra is useful in day to day life, so it'll stay with us. the formula for an area of a triangle is mostly useless so it'll fade away. Or the way we learn stories, by being a narrative we can immerse ourselves into.