Do you have to learn a lot of things by heart for exams?

Is that a
good or bad thing?

One of the most stressful things for students are the approaching exams.
Some people rather prepare for exams by heart, some people rather trying to
solve a lot of older year exams. So, the main question here is, is learning
everything by heart a good thing, or a bad thing?
By learning everything by heart you might just remember everything
theoretically, but not practically. This might just leave a huge disadvantage for
you if you know how to solve an equation, but you could not show it. Also, by
learning everything by heart will make you feel a lot more stressful, because
you might think to yourself that you might have not learnt enough or if the
things you learnt would not be in the exam.
On the plus side, if you have a good long-term memory, this way of
preparing for an exam might be quite useful. Also, you could find a lot of things
that you might have missed, which could definitely give you a huge advantage
in your exam.
In conclusion, I could say that learning by heart is a good thing, but as
everything else, it has some bad things. But it is more important to understand
things than just learn them. So, if you are willing to learn everything by heart,
make sure you understand the theory you are reading and not just learn them.