[thinkr]

These are two really good points, but #2 seems so obvious yet has never occurred to me.

I believe a property of the "good at math" persona is that the individual can just "magically" solve a math problem _quickly_ in there heads, or more precisely, this individual already possesses the answer, but just needs to recall it, akin to recalling a history fact.

Yes, by practicing maths, you will eventually develop some "muscle memory" for certain types of problems, but understanding or solving a math equation does not inherently have time constraints associated with it, yet we somehow believe that to be part of what it means to be proficient in maths.

This false belief has held me back from believing I could achieve more in mathematics - the idea that if I can't find the solution to a problem in under 10 seconds, I obviously don't know or can't figure out the answer.

Thank you for making this point that is quite obvious, but has enlightened me.

[ejk314]

This is how I felt about the Math GRE. On the practice test, when I gave myself plenty of time to think, I was able to answer almost every question correctly. But on the real timed test, I scored very poorly. They gave you so little time to solve the problem there was no "thinking" involved, it was all rote algorithmic manipulation.