I think there's significant variance, but I don't think this is necessarily the norm. Everyone must memorize some basic tables as well as standard algorithms, b

I think there's significant variance, but I don't think this is necessarily the norm. Everyone must memorize some basic tables as well as standard algorithms, but I wouldn't say it ever struck me as a problem. The only exception to this for me was pre-calc, in which they taught us trigonometry rules without explaining it's basic relationships to the unit circle. Our calculus teacher was dumbfounded the next year when we had no intuitive understanding for these things. It took an hour to correct. No big loss. Shrug.