Does it even count?

As another 6-hour study session(?) produces no results whatsoever in the gruelling and in my opinion completely pointless procedure of semester examinations, a number of random although fleeting thoughts flash across my mind. The girl in the front row at our examination hall, the amount of stuff I hadn't done, the time I had left for the exam, the reason why I was still awake at 4 am. It was somewhat disturbing that all my seriousness about IInd year Mechanical Engineering at VJTI was concentrated around the end of the semester, particularly in the last few hours. I felt almost like a prisoner on Death row, desperately doing anything he can to avoid the inevitable. A thought, completely random at the time, but remarkably sensible, sane and even philosophical, teased me like a physics professor teases his students with a problem he doesn't solve because his lecture ended.

Does this really matter?
Does it even matter that I have a 7 pointer whereas most of my friends flaunt 9's? Does it matter if I don't give a damn what my pointer is? Does it matter that I prefer knowlede to information? Does it matter that I think the education system has reduced us to a bunch of hard disks(albeit inefficient ones) expected to download information off books into the 4 terabytes space reserved for it?
When I look around me, I see people who have the best grades in college, but whose knowledge of the subject resembles that of a chihuahua. I see people whose knowledge surpasses that of most seniors. The way they think, the way they react to situations, the way they analyse their lives in a crisis is fundamentally reverse of the former group. I believe myself to be more in the latter (because I'm definitely not in the former group).
To tell you the truth, I can handle the fact that getting good grades has become a substitute to understanding a subject. But what I cannot bear is that the education system has now sought refuge in the lethargy and moulded itself to use minimum energy and cause maximum damage to inquisitive minds. We have moulded our belief of engineering to learning something in that book and something else in this one.
I do not have an opinion on how anyone should define themselves as engineers(or do I?). But I have a problem. After I get my degree from one of the most sought-after, prestigious insitutute of India, what do I have to show for it? Just a lousy paper in my hand signifies my life's work, without any knowledge of the subject whatsoever?
Just a passing thought, you know.