I understood the mathematics, but made a lot of silly errors, e.g. misreading -/+. Messy handwriting, crammed layout and too many steps at once all contributed,

I understood the mathematics, but made a lot of silly errors, e.g. misreading -/+. Messy handwriting, crammed layout and too many steps at once all contributed, but I also just made many mistakes. It felt impoosible to fix and didn't seem worth it since the understanding was what I valued. But since I never felt confident in my results - checking the answer was always suspenseful - my mathematics was useless, to actually use, without an answer to check. So I decided to methodically notice where I made errors, and to verify those particular places. "It might take me twice as long", I thought, "But at least I'll have the skill to do it, when needed, and be able to have results I can actually use!" So I began this, and it did take twice as long, and it worked. That sense of suspense started to disappear, because knew I had the correct answer. I became more skilled at checking, so it look less time. And then a very strange thing started to happen... I started to make those mistakes less often. I became attentive to them as I was making them. Then stopped making them. I didn't antipicate or account for this at all... I thought it was impossible for me to change - it was like magic. In hindsight, this was "deliberate practice", with the key quality of not just repetitive practice (which eventually plateaus), but practice focussing on appropriate aspects, changing as needed. An expert coach really helps here, both for identfying issues and psychological encouragement. Although I managed this particular one on my own, it was hard. But finding such a coach seems even more difficult! And I'm so obstinate, I'm not sure I would pay attention anyway...