That’s why when you learn something, you should try to learn it from more than 1 angle. The more angles you look at one problem, the better chance you will understand deeper and will remember the problem better and recall it quicker. And it’s best done with having some practical application of what you have just learn to reinforce the memory.

On test taking strategy it’s a different thing. It’s an art in itself. You need to develop the ability to do “preliminary” investigation of a question/problem within a few seconds. If the question is outside your comfort zone (which means you can solve it very rapidly), you will have to defer it and move on. Only come back to it at the end when you have free time. This ability to read, capture the essentials and analyse it within a few seconds is not easy to acquire. You need the mental sharpness of a swordman facing the enemy to do it well. You will have to train your mind by doing many practice tests under limited time constraint. Assign a difficulty level score between 1-10 to each question when you first read, and skip it (come back later) if the difficulty is over 4.