A tough math class can make you feel slow. Slow and correct beats fast and lost.

Speed is the most visible part of mathematical ability and one of the least important. Other people finishing first tells you about their fluency with that particular kind of problem, not about whether they understand it better than you. Working carefully produces right answers, which is what the subject actually rewards. Speed turns up later as a by-product of understanding, never the other way round.

Give yourself permission to be the slowest person in the room this week and work every step out properly. Write the lines you would normally skip. Slow and consistently right is a far better position than quick and guessing.