I can relate with your experience, I also had the same experience with statistics in my 300 level, imagine a mass communication student learning stat, it feels alien to my brain. I did the same thing you did but I didn't get A but something close. I realise the moment we find a way to convince our mind that no matter how hard a subject is we will pass it, the mind will have no choice but to follow through. That was the implication of the "A" you wrote on your note.