[commandlinefan]

One thing I learned (or maybe realized?) about math books especially is that they all follow a similar structure: a topic is presented with some proofs, followed by some sample exercises worked out step-by-step, followed, of course by practice exercises whose answers are available in the back of the book. One thing that helped me retain a lot of the material was to try to work the sample exercises on my own without looking at the author’s step-by-step instructions, just based on the description the preceded it. Once I was finished, I compared my work with his - I often found myself catching important concepts that way that I would have glossed over if I had just skimmed over the example.