Have you ever thought of yourself being good at something such as science or language or any other subject with the good mind to take it as a course in school, college or university thinking you shall sail through it with success?
It's an illusion many including myself often fall for and at times get too over optimistic.
Taking a course on a subject that you had a general interest in and had a vast knowledge of is not the same as what you learned about it in your own independent research or by learning from others.
Courses can become extremely technical and can often cover every aspect/detail of the subject especially when studied at college/university.
Take for example civil aviation which I have a vast knowledge on through personal interest. Though not necessarily studied at college by professional pilots, it is available there or can be learned through private flying clubs or other institutions as well.
Just as mentioned, my knowledge in civil aviation was very vast. I even knew more about wide-body planes than one of my pilot instructors!
But all this didn't help much in my pilot training aside from giving me an idea of what to expect. I had to learn all the technical aspects into training to be a pilot and it proved to be very difficult.
The same can be said for any subject or field that you'd chose to study and perhaps pursue as a career. The massive background knowledge that you have will most likely not be much of use.
This is not to say that you won't succeed at what you choose to study, just that it will most likely be the hard way. I was and still am struggling with my pilot training course. Even at university my knowledge in comparative linguistics does not help much in my study of the introduction to linguistics.
On the other hand we can be successful at courses we had no idea on. For instance it was mandatory to take civics in high school where I live.
I had no idea what the course was about. Yet I scored such high marks at it and by the mid term of the course when marks were being shown, I had the highest mark in the class of 85% and was issued a small certificate of recognition.
My marks fell to 55% because I didn't do my final assignment but that's a different story.
The point is background knowledge usually does not affect your performance in a course. You cannot assume to be good at something because of strong background knowledge or assume you'll succeed in that subject due to that background knowledge.
So when taking a course at college/university, I'd advise readers to first try and learn from people who have taken it about their experiences or try and consult with people who teach that subject or field.
