This is the greatest mistake we tend to make in life.
Life isn't a competition so why do we try to make it one. The reason why alot of people are still where they are today is because they still don't understand living, they still see it as a competition to be won which is not to be so.
Life is not chess where you will have to checkmate your opponent but rather in life you to keep learning and improving on your self.
Another mistake we tend to make in life is copying someone else, trying to be someone else, trying to be something we are not or something we are not meant to be. These is the trend now in my generation where people live a fake life trying to impress people that do not even notice them and by doing this, you tend to put yourself in a box where all the things you do will be to keep up your fake lifestyle going cause once you put your self inside that box it hard to come out and this make's you lie in order to keep up with apearance.
We should be ourselves because we are unique in our ways and trying to be someone else is like droping your size of cloth and picking a cloth that doesn't suit you and forcing it to fit.
We should learn on how to better. We should never stop improving till we get our good is better and our better is best.
So i dont see why we can't put in more effort on bettering ourself or our life's.
Like i said yesterday that "focus is the key to success", once you are focused on finding yourself, building yourself and not trying to be better then someone, you will surely achieve your aim.
As a student you don't need to copy one's way of reading or going about his/her academics life, all you need to is to find out what best suit you and apply it to yourself. Example; if i am used to reading at day time and understand, i should know that yes this time is good for me to understand but if i start copying or pretending to be someone else i will want to read at night of which i know it not a good time for me.
So the best thing is found out what is best for you and do it or maybe because 
Conclusion
The problem is not that it is impossible, the problem is that you have not tried well enough on your own. Never be scared of loosing or trying things your own way but be scared of living a fake life which can never give you anything but take away the little you have.
Always dream big and put in more effort to make that dream a reality. Being in competition with someone will never make you grow but putting in more effort will.
Also try to find out your purpose and work towards it.