This person is a victim of a bad high school. I saw this when I attended an engineering school. Many “top in their class” students were never challenged in high school. They flunked out after freshman year.
Our kid saw this in the UC (California) system a decade ago. The professor would discuss a study and tell the students to research the background information on it. Their assignment was to decide whether they agreed or disagreed with the results of the study. They were to cite the information they research to perform their task (and don't plagiarize).
The first words out of half the class would be "What do I need to do to get an "A" in the course?" Most of these kids were taught just memorization and regurgitation on tests. Very little development at "applying" knowledge.
Note that the above assignments had no wrong or right answer. You were being tested on your ability to research and critically thinking about a subject. A lot of these students didn't make it out of the first quarter (and, yes, several plagiarized).
Grade inflation now is at the Zimbabwean dollar level. A 4.0 now would have been a 1.5 in 1960.