i got As in almost all my classes in math without really understanding anything. It was like a train I couldn't stop. I couldn't ever slow down for a month and

i got As in almost all my classes in math without really understanding anything. It was like a train I couldn't stop. I couldn't ever slow down for a month and say "I'm going to work on trigonometry this whole month so I can know what I'm doing when I do integration." I just had to memorize the steps to get the right answer, get my A, forget it all, and wait for whatever was coming next. Years later I go straight back to the beginning and figure everything out, starting with Serge Lang's Basic Mathematics. I didn't even know where the Pythagorean Theorem came from, and when I learned it the second time around, it was damn beautiful. my advice is to go back all the way to the beginning and get a book written by a real mathematician. I.M. Gelfand's Algebra and Trigonometry were truly enlightening.