P = F/A

Pressure: You think you do your best work under pressure; you are mistaken. You are more efficient, perhaps (and perhaps not), but it is not your best work. There is nothing wrong with sticking to the steep part of the curve and avoiding those decreasing marginal returns, but understand the trade off, as you will usually receive a grade or two less than you might have with more time. (Oh, if I just had more time! Can I have an extension?) But it is a world of trade-offs. Please understand, though, that your idea of "a lot" of work/time is probably way less than that of the instructor. Asking the instructor questions like "how much detail/time/pages/etc." is futile, as our conception of moderate may be your conception of extreme. Luckily, perhaps, we don't really care how hard you tried or how much time you put into it, as it is the result that matters. However, for the overwhelming majority, many of whom over-estimate their performance under pressure, there is a strong correlation between time and performance. Yes, work smart, not hard, but sometimes it's smart to work hard.