Originally Posted by Neesie

I had the same problem as your DH but now understand why we had to show our work. I had a hard time memorizing the steps, but could come up with the right answer, by letting the problem twist around in my head, for a few minutes. When asked how I got the answer, it was hard to explain the "twisting" process, so my teachers probably thought I had somehow copied the answer from somewhere. I had to force myself to learn the proper steps. What I realize now, is that by learning the steps, I was teaching my brain to be more methodical. Well, trying to teach it, anyway.