I learned math through guided struggle. My high school had a kind of macho attitude about it, we were all about math competitions and pushing through university

I learned math through guided struggle. My high school had a kind of macho attitude about it, we were all about math competitions and pushing through university level stuff etc. Today I feel that was a good way to study, but much of the struggle could've been avoided. You must solve problems to progress, but they don't have to be hard problems. They just need to be formulated at level n but require solutions at level n+1. Devising such problems is hard and many teachers don't bother, instead they give you definitions at level n+1 right away and make you solve problems about those. That's the root of the problem IMO.