The difference from school is that in school, the problems often have solutions. In school you often know that you solve the problem correctly because the answer is pretty. In life, you are often placed in the Catch-22 situation. Often the problems have no solution and you have to choose not between good and bad, but between one bad and another.
Yet, as a rule, we are given lessons which serve our learning, even though, the problems may remain unsolved. Even more, among possible problems, we, as physical individuals, usually choose those which are of our level. The problems which are too hard for us are usually beyond our comprehension. This is an example of the law of attraction: our vibration, through resonance, attracts us to challenges which correspond to our vibration.