Want to make changes to this site? submit a pull request at Github.
Being able to express what you learn is how you get good at it and remember it. You can take notes, do exercises, take exams, and teach others, for instance, in study groups.
There are at least two different mindsets you can have while studying math: a fixed mindset and a growth mindset. A fixed mindset is the belief that your ability in math or anything else is basically set and cannot change. This is not very helpful. A growth mindset, on the other hand, is the idea that you can get better at something, such as math, with practice (specifically deliberate practice, as I will discuss below). And this is true, you can get better with practice. Anyone can have either mindset about math. If you start with a fixed mindset you can change that mindset into a growth mindset.
Deliberate practice means getting guidance from tutors or teachers about what to study, specifically weak spots, and working on those.
Space repetition refers to studying and then taking breaks, whether a minute, an hour, or a day or two, and then studying again. This leads to better retention of what you study compared with studying everything in one block. If you want to retain something over a long time you can increase the intervals between studying. For instance, you can start by doing some of your homework a few hours after class, then do some more the next day, then skip a day and do some more. You might notice that this makes it harder but the increased effort you put in will increase your retention and when you forget and relearn things this will also increase learning.
To go along with spaced repetition you can interleave (doing one thing followed by a second thing followed by the first thing again etc) slightly different subjects back and forth. For instance, you can practice algebra which requires adding to each side with algebra which requires multiplying each side by going back and forth with each, or alternate with a half-hour of algebra homework then and a half-hour of statistics homework
Understanding math is best but sometimes memorization is helpful too. Even when you understand something it’s good to memorize, too, so you can be fast. One way to memorize formulas is with a song, think of the song for the alphabet or the song for the quadratic formula. Acronyms are also helpful think Soh, Cah, Toa for trigonometry or PEMDAS for order of operations. To remember these things, repeatedly express them and use increasingly spaced repetition. When you have something memorized and are taking a test, write down what you have memorized first so you can reference it off the paper rather than from your memory; this will save mental resources.