"Traditional exams do not foster creativity in children, considering that in order to pass those types of exams, students simply need to memorize..."

[hardyweineberg]

"Traditional exams do not foster creativity in children, considering that in order to pass those types of exams, students simply need to memorize lessons and other details."

"At primary school, for instance, I always scored very high on maths tests, not because I had a good understanding of maths, but because I learnt a lot of mathematical formulas by rote and accurately replicated my teacher's works."

"Although people tend to underestimate the implications of this, I believe that students' chances of becoming successful have been significantly reduced by their failure to develop creative skills."

Source: me

Before I start, these sentences are all connected; the 2nd comes immediately after the 1st and so on.
1) Is it correct to say "memorize lessons"?

2) Is "I crammed a lot of mathematical formulas" a grammatical alternative to "I learnt a lot of mathematical formulas by rote"?

3) Regarding the last sentence, is my use of "this" grammatical and clear? I'm talking about this part: "...underestimate the implications of this".

4) Should it be "implication" or "implications"?

 

[Tarheel]

1. Yes.
2. You could say: "I crammed a lot of mathematical formulas into my head."
3. Yes.
4. implications