Does anyone have any advice for having success in higher level math classes? I'm taking big boy linear algebra, and am killing myself for an 80%. The professor is expecting us to work very quickly on quizzes and exams. I made a minor mistake on my quiz today and ran out of time trying to correct it which seems to be happening to me every single week.

I feel like I'm understanding the material conceptually and am able to work through the proofs on my own consistently. But I lack the refinement to be able to perform accurately under the time constraints. I barely feel like I'm able to collect my thoughts at all. And if I'm not running through problems on muscle memory I'm wasting valuable time.

For those of you who maintained a perfect gpa through higher level math how did you do it? What were your study habits like? How did you deal with professors who regularly throw curve balls and expect perfection?