Hi guys, I hope that a post like this is okay in this subreddit. I'm in my fourth year of undergraduate studies in Mathematics, currently I'm taking intro numerical analysis, differential equations and a linear algebra II course; I've always had a strong drive to do well; but I am once again, semester after semester, falling behind and failing exams.
I'm super burnt out and am paralyzed thinking about my upcoming midterm because I know I'm going to bomb it since I cannot solve any of the practice problems without spending an hour solving it and not being able to fully understand how and why it works. I want to get better so badly but I metaphorically feel like all my classmates had like some kind of intro session in the beginning of their degrees and were told how to be a math student and they just get it, and I missed it thus leaving me unprepared and lost studying mathematics.
I can do the homeworks and textbook dive/research what I need to know to solve a given problem, but it takes me about an hour at least to solve a pronlem or I have to use chatgpt and I cannot even recite off the top of my head most of the important definitions are despite working through many problems these past few weeks. And I have almost never done well on a midterm, test, final exam, etc.
I study for my exams by doing practice problems that were given, or re-doing problems that were on the homework, but every time I enter the exam, it's like I have no idea how the hell to solve any of the problems since they're completely different than the homeworks and practice problems.
I can't find anywhere or anyone talking about how to actually be a math student. I'm super frustrated so please bare with me, but I wanted to ask you fellow students and alumni what do you do in your day-to-day to make sure that you are prepared for exams?
My question to you guys is are there any particular study methods you use like flashcards for the definitions, active recall software, making things stick when you're in lecture, knowing what to pick out of the lecture and lock in the important stuff, or really just any "core" things you could maybe suggest to me to be a successful student?
Thanks you guys.
tl;dr: I want to be a good math student but I just feel like I'm completely missing the memo on how to be one therefore failing exams, falling behind, etc. and am seeking help on any core student skills or study methods any math student should have to do well on exams.
edit: fixed tl;dr