I remember when the AP Calculus test questions were released only a month or so after I had taken and aced the exam. I had no idea whatsoever how to solve the p

I remember when the AP Calculus test questions were released only a month or so after I had taken and aced the exam. I had no idea whatsoever how to solve the problems I had solved easily in the very recent past. It's as you say. I didn't absorb it at all. I stuffed it in short-term memory and passed an exam. But that's all I learned. I learned how to stuff things in short-term memory. I didn't learn calculus.