I graduated from Harvard Medical School with Honors. That was the first time I encountered "the perfect Asian student." On the one hand, these students were very organized and worked incredibly hard. On the other hand, many made mediocre or even poor doctors since they had rote-memorized many things, yet many were unable to apply the knowledge in the flexible fashion you need to be a great doctor.
Now that I have kids, I do try to make sure they have their math facts down cold, "like the asian kids." Many of them do the rote-memorization Kumon prep, which we avoid, since I don't want my kids to lose that flexible thinking. FYI...