I had a similar experience in high school with Spanish vocabulary tests. I could remember where the word was on the page, but not the translation. At the time

I had a similar experience in high school with Spanish vocabulary tests. I could remember where the word was on the page, but not the translation. At the time I perceived using the location as a crutch, so I made photocopies of the pages, cut them into the separate columns, then taped them together to make one very long and skinny list of words. I would then roll it up into a small scroll, little bigger than a tube of chapstick. Maybe the spatial location was a learning aid, and this actually made it harder to learn words, but it did make it much easier to discreetly study during other classes, so it was probably a net win overall.