Mine were too! I could actually calculate quite well and when the going got tougher, I used my trusty slide rule (do you know what they were?). Later, we had a neat German made, mechanical hand computer that was a clever run-up from Babbage's machine and it worked very well--just a bit slow as you had to crank the thing.
As for having more "general knowledge" we were all pretty good at that too. Computers don't necessarily make you smarter, but reading FR every day does.