Smarter or Dumber?

Okay, so tonight I took a closed-book take-home exam for Greek (only in Seminary would they think to give a closed book take home test). Anyway, I was really stressing over it. I really didn't feel that I was proficient enough to simply look at Greek text and know what it said without my Logos Bible Software open in front of me, or at least a good Greek Lexicon. However, the translation was surprisingly simple. Not only do I think I nailed it, but I did it rather quickly.
Then there was the section where we had to parse (that it, break the word down into it's parts). Basically I have to say whether it is a verb, noun, participle, etc. Whether it is masculine or feminine. Whether it is first, second, or third person, singular or plural, etc. What it's tense is. And, much to my chagrin - what it's case is. Now, for the life of me, I couldn't remember what "case" referred to. Honestly. I'm still not quite sure. The sad part, two out of four such questions asked only for the case of the word. So I politely wrote my teacher a small note saying, "I honestly can't think of what 'case' is, I will simply parse the word." That's ver-batem.
So, am I smarter than I thought because the translation was so easy, or am I dumber because I got hung up on such a simple thing as "case."