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This is not a math problem per se, but I figured it wouldn't hurt asking for some advice in here, since a large part of the community consists of students.

I've recently taken several courses in mathematics out of general curiosity, and typically my experience has been as follows: I have no problem understanding the material and completing the assignments well, but I struggle finishing exams in time. When I solve assignments I usually take 1-3 hours or so per problem (say there are 5 problems per assignment, usually), taking my time to figure things out and check everything is correct. This strategy works well...for assignments, but not in exams, where time limit is a problem. I oftentimes struggle to figure out how to solve the problem set in an exam in the given amount of time.

So I suppose my question is, what are some tips for increasing my problem solving 'speed', or tips for taking math exams at college level?

The obvious bit of advice is, I suppose, practice, practice, practice. I got this down. But are there perhaps less obvious pieces of advice?

There just seems to be a discrepancy between understanding the material well, and being able to come up with a proof quickly, which I can't quite bridge...

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    For reference, the courses I took and struggled with were: infinitesimal calculus III (which translates to 'multivariable calculus' around these parts) and linear algebra II (inner product, some more matrix transformation tidbits, and other niceties).2012-07-05

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