Post-secondary education is expensive. You either need to work for the money, borrow it, ask your parents (or spouse) for it, or get free funding from the school or government, but apparently you need to get a decent mark for "free" money. You could have to pay for textbooks, supplies, or even a dorm room. A big point of higher education is to get a better career and so get paid better. When I was a starting student I knew nothing about money and couldn't tell you what income I might expect after graduation.
I'm a full-time employee who recently took an intro-level accounting course as a "mature student". It's good for my particular career. It cost just over $500 Canadian and the textbook was over $100. The textbook gave us access to a web portal to do the homework, which was worth 20% of the mark. (You could get a used textbook for half off, but you would lose that 20%, since the web access code was already used.) Most of the students were first year college students from Canada, but some were international students, who had to pay over $1,500 to take the course. Unfortunately many of the students did poorly and wasted their money.
It was a summer course taking place on Saturday morning. Unlike summer high school, the pace was reasonable, and I personally found it to be easy, although the homework and studying was time-consuming. I was working full-time, some of the students were as well, some part-time, some taking other courses, some basically on summer vacation, so it's hard to say how much time students had available to study.
On the first day, the professor told us we should expect to spend 10 hours a week studying for it, and many students said they were taking it for the second or even third time. Students would clearly state why they failed the last time, such as say they didn't study at all between classes... and then go on to do the exact same thing this year. (You didn't need 10 hours per week. Five would do the trick.)
Given that a student had to pay a minimum of $600, and many students are poor, I expected they would study hard. But only a few did. A student could drop out and get a course refund by a certain date (I think right after the second big test), but at least two thirds of the students (including many struggling students) were still there by the final exam. You couldn't get a full refund for a new textbook (since you were really buying the web access code). You could sell the textbook back, though, if you hadn't marked it up too much, and probably get a third or half of the money back. (Speaking of which, when I'm buying my textbook for the next course, I need to return my textbook...)
Immediately I noticed attendance was poor. To be honest, you probably could take the course and get a decent mark if you only showed up for tests and did the homework, and quite a few students did just this. One dramatic-looking student (in that I would have noticed his existence on the very first day due to having a giant purple mohawk or something, but didn't) showed up for the first test about an hour late. Alas, he didn't know we have our tests first thing in the morning, so he missed it, and of course couldn't say he was sick or something. He showed up for every test, but other than we never saw him again.
Many of the students told each other and even the professor that they weren't doing the homework. They might look shame-faced when they said that, publicly, but they still weren't doing the homework. If you spend $100+ on the textbook and weren't doing the homework, you wasted at least $50, and were losing 20% of your marks as well. The textbook is a good teaching tool (IMO), but the homework assignments were worth more than their marks; they actually made sure you knew the stuff. Some concepts could only really be learned through practice (IMO). I don't think it's an opinion to say you cannot learn bank reconciliations without practice, unless you're a literal genius.
Students who actually showed up weren't necessarily more serious than the other students. You could tell when the professor would ask them a question who had done the homework and who hadn't. Often the professor would ask a student a question, and the first couldn't answer, the second couldn't answer... it could take four students before one got the right answer (and often because the professor would turn to a high-performing student to save time rather than see that most of the class hadn't done the homework). There were eight chapters to study, and there were students at class who couldn't answer questions from the first couple of chapters during the final review session. (By that point, it was too late to drop out.)
A student who had failed the previous year told me, before the final exam, that he had received a good mark on the tests this year. He tried to attend every class, but due to illness only made it to about two thirds of them. His good mark didn't really surprise me, since he could answer most of the questions... until he told me he wasn't doing the homework, which wasn't helping him due to the disadvantage of missing a lot of classes. So instead of (say) 80% maybe he's really only getting 60%... and then he told me he did badly on the final exam, which was worth 40% of the entire mark and is a stress-filled "dream crusher". Even the best students did worse on the final exam than on the tests, so they'd try to do really well on the tests to make up for the inevitable drop in marks. He literally could have failed just because he gave up 20% from his homework. Even if he passed, you need a 65% to progress (which means passing at 60% was a waste of time and money).
As for myself, there's an antimustachian school history. When I was going to school full-time I signed up for a course once and completely forgot about it. I got a literal 0% (and of course, since I didn't actually drop out, no refund for me). I think I found out when I looked at my transcript. I ended up paying for it again and taking it again the next year (and getting a good mark). At least I only bought the textbook once! But paying for a course twice is obviously a stupid thing when you're a financially-struggling student.
But that's not the worst. I took a test at work to avoid having to do an accounting course, only I "failed". I procrastinated too much and so didn't study effectively. The multiple choice test was out of 40 and there were 4 options per question. I looked at my mark of 25 and wondered how I could have screwed up so badly that someone randomly picking options would have gotten the same mark. (It turns out I got 25/40, not a great mark, but more than enough for work purposes.) Well with the course done at least I can further my education and get a better job with another employer with this course. Silver lining.