22 years later I still have nightmares about DiffEq because I received a C in the course when I really deserved an F. I’ve sometimes wondered if the dreams would stop if I sat down and successfully learned the material.
No, suggests my experience. For me, after somehow squeezing through DiffEq, I met complex analysis, taught by the math department. I started the semester, got way behind, dropped it. Did that a second time. The third time my advisor wouldn't let me drop it, and I ended up with a gentleman's D (the only D in my life, aside from like handwriting in 3rd grade). The very next semester I took pretty much the exact same material from the EE department. I got it, I loved it, and aced it completely.
But 50 years later, I still have those gonna-flunk dreams.
I think the key with a mathsy topic like this is to sit down and really just laser-focus on what you don't understand.
Don't trust your teacher, read 4 different textbooks if that's what it takes to make it stick - it doesn't matter whether is dry as a desert or visual, just whatever works. The amount of intuition you have grows exponentially.
The rule of thumb that I live by is that learning mathematics is difficult, and teaching mathematics well is almost impossible - prepare before hand. I don't think I've learnt anything in a lesson or lecture post-algebra, that may not be the best thing but I have a very good feel for what I need to learn because of it.
