J. Cole is well-known not just as a rapper, but as a rapper that went to college. And not just as a rapper that went to college, but as a rapper that graduated from college. And not just a rapper that graduated from college, but as a rapper that graduated from college magna cum laude.

But it turns out he still feels like he didn't learn enough.

"I was always a great student, [but] if I could go back and do it again, I would have really learned the material," he said on "The Tavis Smiley Show." "I was great at being -- I knew how to pass a test: Night before, study and cram, go in and knock the test out. I do my work; I do my papers."

As much as he had his own regrets, he felt like it was a symptom of a system that places more value on grades than learning.

"I don't think our school system is set up -- if a guy like me can have straight As and graduate college magna cum laude, but still now turn 30 and feel like, 'Man, I didn't really retain it,' I feel like that says a lot about our education system; that you can squeeze by and know how to get by."

But Cole has recently made a conscious decision to continue learning his own way.

"Right now, I'm shuffling between four books," he told Smiley. "I'm trying to train myself, in the past few years, to become a reader, so that by the time 35, 40, 45, 50, I am a voracious reader. [That was sparked by the feeling that] back in school, even though I got the grades, I didn't retain it. I didn't put the importance on it. I didn't know that I would want to know this stuff when I was older. I did know that I wanted good grades...I want to know about [Martin Luther] King's final year; I want to know about Malcolm X; I want to know about American history -- the real American history; I want to know about the history of North America, period. I want to know about these things, and I want to be informed."

It's a valuable lesson, for sure: Yes, the grades, and the doors those grades can potentially open, are important. But actually learning is where the real value comes.