[dagw]

The other aspect that I found with LA compared to almost any other math subject I took was that it was almost entirely mechanical with little to no connection between my understanding of the subject and my grade. The exam questions where mostly along the lines of "find the eigenvector" and "find the determinant" rather than "what's an eigenvector" and "what's a determinant", so I got good grades despite not having any idea how to answer the latter questions, or really having any idea what I was doing. Understanding was neither necessary nor encouraged.

[Ocerge]

This, exactly. I could find an orthonormal basis or an eigenvector, but I never quite wrapped my head around their importance, especially visually.